Origin guideNorth America
Mexico Mexican speciality coffee
Mexico has grown coffee for more than 200 years. Most of it comes from smallholders in the southern states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Puebla, and the best of it is gentle, sweet and chocolatey: easy to love, and a natural fit for decaf.
The field notes
Mexico at a glance
- Harvest
November – March
- Production
About 4.1 million 60 kg bags (2025/26)
- Main regions
Chiapas · Veracruz · Oaxaca · Puebla
- Common varietals
Typica · Bourbon · Caturra · Catuaí · Garnica · Marsellesa · Oro Azteca
Production figures: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service estimates for 2025/26, published July 2026.
When is it harvested, and how is it processed? See our guide to coffee harvesting and processing.
Chapter 01The story
History of coffee in Mexico
Coffee reached Mexico in the 1700s, brought by Spanish settlers from Cuba and the Dominican Republic. It was first planted in Veracruz, on the Gulf coast, and that is where commercial production took hold.
Over the following century, coffee spread south into Oaxaca and Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala. Chiapas is now Mexico’s largest coffee-growing state.
Chapter 02Change
From state support to co-operatives
For decades, the state-run Mexican Coffee Institute, INMECAFE, supported farmers with technical help, credit and a guaranteed buyer. In 1989 it was dismantled, in the same year the International Coffee Agreement’s quota system collapsed, and smallholders were suddenly left to face falling world prices on their own.
Many responded by organising into co-operatives. Mexico became a pioneer of fair trade coffee: the very first Fairtrade-labelled coffee, sold in the Netherlands in 1988, came from a co-operative of smallholders in Oaxaca. Many Mexican farms are also organic by default, and many are certified.
Leaf rust and replanting
From 2012, coffee leaf rust swept through Central America and Mexico, and it cut Mexico’s production by almost half. Many farmers have since replanted with rust-resistant varieties such as Marsellesa and Oro Azteca.
Chapter 03Today
Coffee in Mexico today
More than 180,000 producers grow coffee in Mexico, and around 70% of them farm less than 10 hectares. Chiapas, Veracruz and Puebla together produce more than 80% of the country’s coffee. Most of it is arabica, washed and grown at altitude, which gives the best Mexican coffees their gentle acidity and sweet, chocolatey character.
Our Café de Mujeres decaf means “women’s coffee”, and that is exactly what it is: it is grown by a group of women producers, farming small plots at 1,800–2,100 metres. It is decaffeinated with the Mountain Water Process, which uses only water to remove the caffeine, so it keeps its cocoa sweetness alongside crisp apple and orange. Read more about how decaf is made.
Taste this origin
