Visiting a coffee plantation

We stopped in the town of Cotepec to find out where to go to see coffee plantations, knowing that they were nearby. It is a cute little town, clean and vibrant, albeit touristy. We went into a shop with a deli case that sold snacks and gifts, and into a ceramics shop for a look around before finding the toilets through the courtyard of the building. We were told there was a coffee shop down the street that had the information we wanted, so we walked over and sure enough they had brochures in Spanish and English, but the directions to get there were a bit sketchy.

After getting a little confused finding the correct road out of the town and seeing one of the rivers here, we drove on the slow paced two lane road, seeing flowering coffee trees out the windows but never noticing the building we were looking for. We went too far, then turned back. After spending a bit too much time in the car, we made it to El Café-tal and we were happy to walk around and relax, enjoying the scenery.

We were the only visitors. A young woman guided us through the garden to a grove of coffee trees, sat us down, and began talking. She told us about the two kinds of coffee commonly cultivated around the world, canephora and arabica. This plantation, and the region in general, only grows arabica. The delicate needs these trees make them difficult to grow in most places, but they certainly do well in this climate and at this elevation, with plenty of taller trees to shade them.

I was so excited to see the little white flowers covering the dainty branches of these trees. I had never seen coffee growing before, not even in photos.

She took us though the courtyard and showed us the antique equipment used for drying the beans. Then we walked up to see the little museum that was put together inside the old house, which I enjoyed as well. The video at the end of the tour was overdoing it, but all in it was well put together for tourists like us. The modern roaster was nice to see and it gave Pablo some ideas for beer brewing grains.

And of course, the espresso was good and very fresh! I am not usually a coffee drinker, but I've been making an exception in the past few days around here. It will be fun to try the coffee I bought earlier in Vera Cruz back in the states in a few months to bring back my memories!

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Part of trip: Guanajuato México and beyond

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