The Eagle - Union Farm, Chiapas

Origin: Mexico.
Region: La Concordia, Chiapas.
Producer: Union Farm.
Variety: Bourbon, Marseillaise and CR95
Height: 1250 meters above sea level
Cultivated: Sustainable, under shade of trees.
Process: Washing
Roast: Medium
Score : 83.75
Notes: Cocoa, Orange, Hazelnut.

Micro Lot: Finca Unión

Located about 7 kilometers from this farm, Ernest Jaeger established his plantation in the early 1930s. Finca Unión would house several families of workers who began the adventure of bringing Bourbon seeds from other farms and Marago seeds (an Arabic coffee plant that has the peculiarity of a large size and intense flavor) from Finca Prusia established in the Jaltenango area (also on the Atlantic side) founded by Guillermo Kahle (1896).

Finca Unión was established by creating the facilities in the Gadow River ravine. Since there is no electricity, it was designed so that all the machinery of the Wet Mill (coffee processing facilities) was moved by hydraulic energy generated first by a hydraulic wheel and then a Pelton type turbine (engineers will understand what I'm talking about), which through the controlled passage of water manages to move the machinery that will remove the pulp from the coffee, and will make it travel through the fermentation tanks and later be dried in the patios where the Finca Unión beans are sunbaked.

The electricity for lighting will be obtained from a hydroelectric generator and later from solar photocells, as is currently the case, evoking a time of the first coffee farms in rural America. Preserving this type of production and the architecture of the Finca Unión's houses, offices, warehouses, and kitchens—made with materials available in nature and designs from the 1930s, inherited from rural Europe—recalls a journey back in time, creating a pleasing fusion with nature, making one think that Finca Unión has always been there.

Today, Finca Unión maintains all that magic, producing specialty washed coffees from the Sarchimor Arabica, Costa Rica 95, and Marsellesa varieties. To a lesser extent, it retains the Marago variety it started with. Quality is its cup and nature conservation its reason for existing.