This beautifully clean washed lot from the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca marks a rare and exciting addition to the Padre lineup. Recommended to us by Jordan from Osito, the coffee immediately stood out on the cupping table for its clarity, freshness and delicate structure, with bright citrus notes balanced by soft sweetness. Mexico remains an underrepresented origin in Australian specialty coffee, with much of its top-tier production typically heading to the United States. This lot offered an opportunity to showcase the quality and character possible from Oaxaca’s highlands — and to introduce a new origin to the Padre microlotprogram.
SUITABLE FOR:
Filter
Aeropress
Plunger
Cold Brew
Stovetop
This coffee comes from the Zapotec communities of San Francisco and San Juan de Ozolotepec in Oaxaca’s remote Sierra Sur. Osito has been building sourcing relationships in Mexico for the past seven years and is now in its sixth year purchasing coffee from the Ozolotepec region. Outside of Burundi, where Padre sources coffees through Osito with Long Miles Coffee, this is the most geographically isolated origin Osito works with, defined by challenging access and limited infrastructure.
The lot was sourced through Red Beetle Coffee Lab and produced by nine Zapotec smallholder farmers, each managing farms typically ranging from 1.5 to 3 hectares. Typica and Bourbon dominate plantings in the area, grown at high elevation under cool, cloudy conditions. Individual producer contributions averaged around 80 kilograms — often representing an entire year’s harvest — with all cherries processed centrally in Ozolotepec to ensure consistency across the lot.
Processing follows a traditional washed method adapted to the region’s climate. Cherries undergo dry fermentation for two to four days, significantly longer than in warmer regions, before drying over an average of eight days. Initial drying takes place on rooftop cement patios, followed by raised beds inside solar dryers lined with woven petates — a locally used natural fibre mat. These slow, controlled drying conditions are essential in preserving clarity, stability and delicacy at such elevation.
All producers contributing to this lot are native Zapotec, members of one of the oldest and most sophisticated Indigenous civilisations of Mesoamerica. With roots stretching back over 2,500 years, Zapotec culture is renowned for its early writing systems, agricultural knowledge and complex social structures. Today, this deep cultural continuity is reflected in small-scale coffee farming practices, where inherited knowledge and careful, labour-intensive processing underpin the quality of coffees like this one.
MEXICO SAN FRANCISCO WASHED 100%
Washed process – Typica & Bourbon varietals grown in Ozolotepec, Sierra Sur, Oaxaca at 1,750 MASL.
LEMON, LIME, CHERRY, PANELA
We’ve created our filter recipe as a guide to help you achieve the same great flavours we experience in our coffees. If you are unable to reproduce the exact result on your brewing gear, don’t panic — adjust your recipe using the ratio to suit your equipment and taste preferences.
Filter
1 – 2 cups daily
250g per fortnight
2 – 4 cups daily
500g per fortnight
6 – 8 cups daily
1kg per fortnight
Note – These guidelines use an estimate of 12–24 grams of coffee to allow for difference in dose size.
If you need help with any of our coffees, please reach out through hello@padrecoffee.com.au and we’ll guide you along through the coffee journey.
Padre Coffee acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their continued connections to land, sea and community.
We pay our respect to Elders past, present and future, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
