Las Chicharras

This story actually starts years before Finca Las Chicharras. It starts with a vision for a school named Ichthus, which was a dream of a man named Young Yong Lee. His hope was to establish a boarding school to grow and create leaders for the country of Mexico by teaching around three principles: honesty, love and service.

In 2005, Ichthus came to life with an initial 13 children. Now, 12 years later, the school has spread to numerous building including a gymnasium, auditorium, lunch room and soccer field and is a completely tuition free boarding school to hundreds of kids.

Quick thereafter Ichthus' inception, Mr Lee realized that if he wanted the school to truly have a sustainable future he needed to create revenue streams to aid in the support of the school. Because many of the students came from families who worked in coffee, it was obvious that the coffee industry was a viable avenue forward. Couple that with his hope to better the lives of many people in the poorest state of Mexico, Chiapas, E Café Chiapas was launched. E Café Chiapas is a faith based social enterprise with several projects on the go. They have their own dry mill and exporting license. They have two expanding farms, Las Chicharras and Las Cascadas. And, they offer micro financing to smaller producing groups and act as a selling agent to foreign markets. E Café Chiapas ‘mission’ is stong and clear:

1. To raise the overall quality and renown of Mexican Specialty Coffee
2. To be a trustworthy producers
3. To provide top quality coffee and service for its customers
4. To fight poverty by working together with indigenous coffee farmers in Chiapas and provide them with at the pay they truly deserve

This particular coffee comes from Finca Las Chicharras. Las Chicharras is the first farm which E Café Chiapas purchased and very much its testing ground for its social and agricultural ideals. Las Chicharras is a sizeable farm with over 150 hectres and at its highest point is close to 1600 meters above sea level. It employs numerous families throughout the year providing them accommodations, food & various social activities

It also recently, due the observance of the kids simply not doing anything, built a school on the farm to engage and educate.

The coffee from Las Chicharras is a mixture of varieties – Bourbon, Marcellesa, Catimore and Guacamayua. It is picked and sorted meticulously, which is clearly noticed in the cup. Regional Chiapas blends are heavy in chocolate tones but Las Chicharras has distinct peach and melon tones and finishes with a strong toffee and nougat flavour.

Temp: 94.5°C Basket: 20g VST In: 21.5g Out: 44g Time: 27sec Ratio: 1:2 TDS: 9.2% EXT Yield: 18.7%