Peet's Coffee & Tea
HUATUSCO MEXICO MICROLOT

It’s been a while since we sourced a coffee this terrific from Mexico, and it’s our first time offering a coffee processed via anerobic fermentation. September’s exclusive microlot hails from Huatusco, a village on the east coast of Mexico, the gem of Veracruz. The region stretches from the coast to the elevated highlands, the source of this noteworthy, high-acidity crop that knocked our socks off in the Cupping Room. Fermentation is a traditional means of removing the fruit pulp from the coffee seed, but the pilas, or tanks, are open to the air. Anaerobic—a newer, more experimental update to the traditional fermentation process—seals the coffee cherries in a metal tank to create a controlled, oxygen-free environment. The process selects for anerobic yeasts and microbes that flourish in this atmosphere bereft of oxygen, allowing the process to be more focused and controlled, resulting in bright coffee with amplified fruit flavor and mouthwatering juiciness. Huatusco Mexico Microlot is citrusy and sweet, with a full body, notes of white grape, and a silky-smooth finish. It’s exciting to offer a Small Batch coffee with a new-to-Peet’s processing style, particularly this noteworthy batch from a farm that’s gotten their process down to a science. In this way, we’re all first-timers. Let’s raise each juicy, sparkling cup in cheers. Only perfect scarlet coffee cherries were selected for this small batch. Wet-hulled and dried on raised beds in greenhouses, they’ve been turned by hand for twenty days, twice the typical time and labor. The controlled conditions and added attention tightly attune color, flavor, and aromatics, while allowing the beans to absorb wild yeasts afloat in the damp air as they refine and darken. The impeccable result drinks like a clean Sumatra, weighty in the cup with herbaceous malt that smells of sweet tobacco and tastes complex and earthy. Surpassingly fragrant and lavish with caramel but light on Sumatra mustiness, this coffee would be noteworthy coming from anywhere. We’re especially pleased to find the essence of this abundant origin in an unusually fine coffee, thanks to the bold intent and focused effort that created this