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Mike In Mexico

Ever heard of 'Scene Panic'? No, neither had we until our head coffee buyer Mike Riley returned from Mexico.

Apparently, it’s when someone is overwhelmed by a scene of incredible beauty. Mike discovered the term while at Finca Muxbal, a beautiful farm on the Guatemalan border. Set amidst mountains, with steep winding roads and vast tropical ferns, it seems Muxbal is so beautiful previous visitors have suffered from ‘scene panic’. Luckily Mike was hardy enough to cope, though the earth did move for him – a small earthquake rattled him out of bed on his last night.

Muxbal was just one of several farms Mike visited in Mexico's mountainous Chiapas region, one of the country’s most important areas for ‘high grown’ coffee. The top quality coffee from the farms in this area is ideal for our Decaffé blend. Conveniently, decaffeination actually takes place up north in Veracruz, using water from mountain glaciers to gently remove the caffeine from the beans without compromising the flavour.

As well as checking on the quality of the next crop, Mike was also really pleased with the efforts of all the farms to improve environmental and social conditions: "to see the standards of living, to marvel at the protected trees that shade our coffee, to have so much commitment from the farmers, and to know that quality is getting better as a result, is gratifying beyond measure."