La Ermita by Rafael Beristain (Washed Limaní)

Rafa’s farms are located in Totutla Veracruz . Although he has a relatively large extension of land 70 ha. (173 acres) he is dedicated to recovering his soil by giving back through the use of microorganisms.

Rafael Beristain and his brothers are the third generation of coffee producers in Totutla, Veracruz. at the skirts of Pico de Orizaba the highest peak in Mexico. Rafa has a huge diversity of trees and prioritizes de conservation of native plants and animals. His wife Alma also comes from a coffee-producing family which makes it a complete coffee family. Rafa works his 4 family farms: Los Encinos, Los Contreras, La Hermita, and La Soledad for a total of 70 hectares (173 acres).

Rafa’s forefathers sold the coffee cherries to the big companies that consolidated all the coffee from small producers and exported the ready-to-roast beans. All the farmers know that selling the cherry is barely enough to survive because they receive a commo dity price and have no diferentiation or added value which brings a small margin. Despite knowing this, it is hard to escape the vicious circle. Picking is the highest capital-intensive time for the farmers, Rafa has to hire 70 to 100 pickers to help him. This drains his capital completely forcing him to either sell the cherries and give him just enough money to pay them or ask for a loan from the local loan sharks who charge 5% monthly.

Either option does not let him progress in any way: economically for his family, quality-wise for the co ee he produces, and makes it harder to maintain his environmen tal sustainability practices. Rafa and Exploradores de Café have found a third option. We have been helping Rafa finance the picking season; we jointly invested in an optic sorting machine; got him to work with PhD Itzel Morales, a coffee scientist who speciali zed in identifying and selecting microorganisms for fermentation through DNA analysis; and also buying ginger and turmeric from this farms. We are proud to say the 2024 harvest was the rst season where the Beristain family did not sell a single cherry and thanks to that their quality of life has improved as well as their coffee.

Rafa is an example of what we strive for as a company. If we had just cupped his co ee 5 years ago we would have probably skipped buying it. But we do not buy coffee we invest in coffee farmers with their passion, hard work, and commitment to bringing development to their communities while respecting the environment.

Rafa does not use any weedicides fertilizers he employs are 100% organic. He believes in multiple cropping to create a healthy exchange of nutrients in the soil. He produces ginger, cardamom, turmeric, macadamia and yucca. Rafa has a Rainforest Alliance Certica te for his farms and continues to strive in favor of sustainability.

Veracruz has suffered a lot from leaf rust and for that reason it is not uncommon to see the use of rust ressistant varieties. Specificaly Limani is a Puerto Rico origin variety that is a sarchimor family hybrid (Villa Sarchi x Timor)

Rafa process is done as a washed but what is special about his coffee is the use of his own yeasts.

This process was specifically done for us with the objective of pulling down acidity with loosing crispness.

Rafa called this protocol all terrain because this coffee goes well as espresso, pour over, milk based drink with whatever, whenever.

For this coffee we looked for a pinch of acidity which gives he coffee a yellow fruit touch. Acidity is present but our slower than usual roast trie to mellow it down without loosing a juicy body.