IT WILL SURPRISE YOU! Exploring the COFFEE CAPITAL of MEXICO! (Tour in Coatepec & Xico)

Hola! Bienvenidos! Welcome to beautiful Veracruz! Buenos dias! Good morning Country Collectors! Today we are taking a guided excursion outside of Xalapa to two Pueblo Mágicos Coatepec and Xico as well as touring the farm at Bola de Oro to learn more about the history and production of their coffee! We can't wait to show you around but before we get started make sure to hit that subscribe button and ring the bell so you don't miss out on any of our future adventures. And please leave us a comment we love to hear from you. Yes right now we are just waiting for our guide Armando then we're going to hit the road. Come along! Look who's here! How you doing? Adam. Armando. Buenos dias. This is Armando who we're going to be taking the tour with all day. Very excited! I can't wait to get started. Let's do this! Get out here and check out this view babe! We took a little pit stop and over here you can see Cofre de Perote which is a volcano but look what's over here! Pico de Orizaba! The tallest mountain here in Mexico. And as you can see it is so lush and green. Armando was just saying that it rains over 200 days out of the year here so that's why it's so good for agriculture. Down here there's sugar cane, there's also banana trees and coffee plantations. It's just incredible! Welcome to our first stop. We are here at Finca Roma, which is one of the most iconic coffee plantations of Bola de Oro. It actually dates back to 1902. And if you saw some of our previous videos from Veracruz you know that it is a top producer and coffee. They have quite a coffee culture here. Bola de Oro is like the most popular one, the most well-known in the region. So here we're gonna go to the museum, then tour the grounds and then end with a coffee tasting. Are you ready for this? Well let's do it! My name is Paco. Well, my name is Francisco but here Mexico all the Franciscos are known as Paco. Interesting! So that's my nickname and I'm the manager here and today I''m gonna be your your guide. Okay thank you. Guys please be my guest, grab a hat. Oh this one looks classic! Is that the classic one? That's classic. There you go! I think you guys ready. We're ready to rock! Okay guys so you guys feel like walking a little bit? Yeah let's do it. Okay let's do it! Bola de Oro owns several plantations all over Coatepec. But the one we are right now is the biggest one. Most of the coffee that we process comes from this plantation. How big? Acres. Acres would be about 20 acres. So this is the the beginning of the magic because we're gonna lay all the seeds right here in order to germinate. We use sand because the sun keeps the moisture and also it's a soft soil for all the coffee beans. The coffee beans are quite vulnerable to rain to sunlight so that's why we use this kind of soil. In here the coffee bean will grow and the first sign of a proper germination is what we call the butterfly. Yeah that does look like a butterfly. So this is the first sign that the coffee bean is germinating properly. If there are more leaves or there is only one leaf or the leaves are not firm like these ones that means something is going wrong and we have to check on. Okay? Because in order to have the best coffee we need to keep an eye on every single step. If we don't take care of every step we're gonna screw it up. Quality control. Quality control okay. So that's the first sign. That's the first sign of a proper germination and then we go to this. From this moment to this moment there has been, we spent about two months waiting for this moment. Okay. Then when all the leaves bloom it's been already five months. So we have two months here and then five months here. Wow. This is what we call the real leaves because now we're gonna see many leaves. Two, three or four pairs. After this we're gonna move to these little tubes that we call tubettes. What difference can you tell from these tiny plants to this one? They have a thicker... they have a stalk, a thicker stalk. The leaves are bigger. The leaves are bigger, are green. Stronger, a much darker green. They're quite strong. If you touch them they will remain you won't destroy your plants. But if you see this one, the leaves are kind of falling down. They're sad. They're upset. That's because something went wrong on these ones. Okay. And these ones are the ones, the the good quality plants that we want to plant on the plantation because these are the ones who are going to give us a quality coffee. And this right here this is showing that this is the best region in the world to grow coffee. Exactly we are between the tropics. Capricorn and Cancer. And in between that's what we call the coffee belt. So have you always loved coffee? Was this like a passion? Well to be honest when I was younger I wasn't like a coffee enthusiast. But then I started working and that's when you realize how how useful the coffee is. I mean you wake up like upset and then you drink a cup of coffee and you feel like okay let's do it. I can do anything. Like Superman! Okay now we're gonna head to the plantation. All right. Okay so now we are entering the plantation. Wow look at how lush and verdant and green it is! If you breathe you'll see the freshness of the air. Oh yes. And also the climate has changed. When we were there on the back on the yard it was a little bit hot. Yes. And right here it feels different feel a little bit fresher. Cool yeah. And if you see around you'll see many trees around us. Well there is a an important reason why we keep all these trees. These trees are providing shade to all this plantation because if the sunlight hits the plant 24/7 or 12 hours a day, it's gonna burn the plant. I see. It's gonna burn these little coffee beans that are growing. So that's why all these trees are providing shade. Enough shade for the plants to have both sunlight but also shade, humidity and also a freshness. There's a spider right back here. When it comes to spiders here in Mexico, the bigger the better. Oh yeah? If you see a tiny one then you better run. But if you see a big one, don't be scared. It might bite you, but it won't kill you. It's gonna just make you feel a little bit bit. Just like me. The bigger ones they're more gentle. And you don't have to be afraid of them. I might bite you, but it won't hurt you that bad. Now if I bite you! Yes watch out for the Heidi bite. I've experienced it. It can lay you up for days. So as you can tell there are already some coffee beans growing. These are quite green, they are not ripe. Okay. It takes up to eight or nine months for the coffee beans to be full ripe. It's almost like a baby. Yeah you really gotta take care of them, nurture them. At the beginning of the year there is a bloom, a flowering. So you will see the coffee plants covered with white tiny flowers with a really nice aroma. Then these flowers they fall and that's when the countdown starts. From the bloom you will have to wait up to nine months okay to get a fully grown coffee bean. When it's red and it's big that's when it's ripe. Okay that's when it's time for all these collectors to start collecting the coffee. Okay here we do not say collector we say piscador because in in the Mexican slang this is piscar. This like grabbing, like picking. And pisca means that we're gonna collect all the coffee. So whenever you say okay it's time for the pisca that means the people is getting ready to collect all the coffee beans. Now we're going to start with the processing plant. Okay. Here in Mexico we do not say processing plant we say beneficio. In the red coffee bean it has some benefits but not as many as they will have after all this process so that's why we call it beneficio. Makes sense. Okay. So this is the first step this is called the despulpadora. We put all the red coffee beans here. And we start turning this wheel and what it's going to make is going to rip off the husk or the pulp. Okay, that's the first step. These coffee beans are quite sticky because after the pulp there is some sugar protecting the coffee bean okay. So on this picture right here we're gonna see we have the husk that we already ripped off and then we have mucilage which is this sticky substance filled with sugar. But we need to take all out all this sugar so we will put all the coffee will fill all those pools with coffee. Wow. And you know fermentation is a basic process where water and sugar are combined and they create alcohol because we need to get rid of all this sugar that is protecting the bean, okay? Okay. It's going to take from 18 to 35 hours depending also on the on the weather conditions. If it's too hot it's going to be faster. If it's too cold it's going to take up to 35 hours. And then we go to the next step which is the drying. Okay. Wow! Okay so Adam. Yes. I need you to volunteer. Yes, I'm a good volunteer. We're hiring people here so I need to see your skills. You are gonna take this shovel and you're gonna spread all the coffee all over this tiny area. Can he stay here for 6 months? No matter to you? You're hired! Okay so you're gonna be our next Arreador. Cool beans! Cool beans! That's the drying process. That's the traditional drying process. So we would spread all these coffee beans on the yard that you see right there. These huge yards were covered with this coffee. And someone was day and night shoveling these beans. Why? Because we're drying these coffee beans and they have to be sun dried on all the sides. Would you volunteer for that? If I can get free coffee and I can play the baggo they have set up outside. Okay so that's the original way to do it. Now we have these huge dryers. For over 12 hours these huge dryers will be turning and drying the coffee slowly but surely until the coffee it's almost dry. Like the one we have here. Oh yeah. Okay. It almost looks like a peanuts. Exactly. Like cacahuates. Do not eat it, no no do not eat it. And that's what we call gold coffee. Gold coffee. Because it's color and also because it's now valuable. I mean one of these is quite quite valuable. Oh yeah. Okay so that's why we call it oro (gold) coffee. Okay so once that we have the dried coffee we have to select the coffee because not all coffee beans have the quality to be a Bola de Oro coffee. Okay. We have to select only the bigger or the biggest coffee beans. Why? Because the bigger the better, the more flavor it adds to our coffee. And the tiny ones won't add any any flavors to our coffee. They're gonna make it a little bit like sour or maybe bitter. So that's why we do not want the small ones. Okay. And what these machines are gonna do they're gonna start vibrating and the tiny coffee beans will drop. And only the big ones will remain. This was created about 60 years ago, 60 to 70 years ago. And now we have this electronic coffee sorters. So here you select size and also color. Because what if a green coffee sneaked into our coffee? And we don't want that kind of coffee. We only want this gold, oro coffee. So that's why this machine is going to help us select not only the bigger one but also have enough quality to be a Bola de Oro coffee. That's a smart machine. It's quite a smart machine! This is the gold coffee I told you about. Oh yeah. Okay so Adam please grab one. Do not eat it. I almost did. I saw you. I'm gonna give you some coffee further ahead okay. Could you peel it off? Yeah. Yeah it's still has some husk protecting the seed. When we get rid of the husk we have this, which is green coffee. The color has changed and this coffee is ready to be roasted. So we use these huge machines to peel off again, once again that husk. Okay how was it done long time ago? Adam I need someone strong. Okay we're gonna be on TV. So you are going to grab that one. All right. And I'm going to grab this one. Okay, ready? May the strongest one win! Go Adam! Go Adam! Go Paco! Okay who won? I think you both, it was a tie. It was a tie. You're sweating, I'm not sweating at all. He wins! Okay so this is a mortero. Mortero. Yes because it helps us to peel off the coffee bean once again. This used to be a female work. Usually we have these Morteras, which is the female of mortero. Some ladies doing this all day long. Wow they must be very strong! Get to work Heidi! And this is the coffee that has been roasted. Okay, so this is a medium roast. This is a dark roast, look at this. Yeah you can tell by the color. Exactly. And this is a blend. Oh nice. Some people think that the more roasted the better but this is not true. Usually when we do coffee tastings we use a medium roast because the more we roast the coffee the more flavors we will lose. It's like a steak. Usually steaks should be eaten raw or like medium rare because it has more flavors on it. If we like completely burn this steak we do it well done it's not gonna be as good. Wow look at this room! This used to be a coffee storage before turning into a museum. You will see this room filled with these coffee sacks. So you want to take a seat? I invite you to my to my house. Your office. It's quite comfortable. Oh yeah it looks like it! Hard day on the coffee plantation. Hard day work. Wow what an interesting day so far. It's been so beautiful and the knowledge we've gained I feel like I appreciate that coffee that I drink even more now. And speaking of drinking coffee we are gonna go and try some MUGnificent Bola de Oro right now. Come along! Ready? One, two... Oh some coffee grounds it looks like! Let's see. I'll tell you what that is not Nescafe! No, no, no. The smell is so robusto, just like me. It just fills your lungs and your nose. It's really nice. I can smell it from over here! Okay so for this tasting I have three rules. Okay. Okay. You're not allowed to say, "It's coffee". You're not allowed to say, "It smells like coffee." And you're not allowed to say, "It tastes like coffee." Okay so we're gonna put our brains to work and we are going to try to find a different flavors because the coffee has all more over than 100 different aromas and flavors. So we are going to try to identify some of these. It's like a wine tasting. So if you say it smells like coffee then you go out! You're out of here! There's a coffee taster wheel right here as well so you can really if you're not an expert you can still find some words to describe it. I love it! So this coffee is already ground. Please grab some and tell me do you think this is a medium grind? I would say this is a medium grind. Okay I see you're into coffee because that's exactly a medium grind. I might use this in like a French press. Okay, for a french press I would suggest you to use a thicker grind. I've been doing it wrong all these years. Wrong answer! Okay that's why we are here, to learn about coffee. Okay what about the roast? Would you say it's medium roast? Dark roast? I would say medium right. Medium to dark maybe. I would say dark. It's got like a very strong aroma to it. Okay one big surprise, this is medium roast! Oh wow. Wrong again! Man I'm zero for zero, zero for two! Okay now we're gonna pick it up and we're gonna shake it. We're gonna shake this cup. Shake, shake shake! What are we doing here beside dancing? We're also heating. Warming it up. And when we heat a substance it starts to react. Oh it's different? Has it changed a little bit? It did. There's more aroma to it now. I feel like it's almost like when you take your wine glass and you do the little swirl to get the air in there. Because we add some heat on it and then the coffee starts to react. It's funny but people think that the coffee starts like reacting when we add hot water but at the very moment when we grind the coffee that's where it starts reacting. So that's the very beginning of the coffee process. And now we're gonna add some boiling water on our coffee and see how it reacts. I get some cinnamon. I can smell the canela. Canela. Vanilla a little bit? It is so complex. It really is. Okay now all this foam that you see we're gonna take it and we're gonna put it on this red cup we have until our cup is completely free of foam. Whoa okay. What we are doing here is that we are also giving some oxygen to the coffee and that's going to help us identifying the flavors. Teeth together and then... Okay! Okay that was good! It's got a really intense flavor to it when you do it like that. I think it's the air in there as well. Yeah. I didn't get the sound quite like him but... There it is! I feel like this cup of coffee is a lot like me and Heidi as a couple. It was worth the wait and it's the perfect mix of fuerte suave. Thank you for being here. Thank you for tasting our coffee. I hope you guys liked our coffee, liked our tour. Oh we loved it! We've experienced so much of Mexico now. The people are incredible, the food, the music, the culture and now the coffee! What a wonderful way to start our day and that's coming from someone who doesn't even drink coffee. From a coffee lover I feel like my appreciation has been deepened and I also feel like I can taste coffee even better now. Yeah the tour took a little over two hours. It cost 150 pesos. If you want to make a reservation for it we'll put their website link down in the description. But yeah we definitely 100 percent recommend it. You can also just drive in here, drive yourself here, come and they have a cafeteria here. So you can sit out here and enjoy a cup of coffee. It's beautiful grounds! Yeah, yeah well all right let's get back in the car because we have a lot more to do today! Right now we are hiking down to Cascada de Texolo located just outside the Pueblo Mágico Xico. And it's one of the most popular natural attractions here. You can see the scenery around me here there are banana trees. It is so lush again. This is just such a beautiful region of the country. Uh-oh everyone's taking breaks. It looks like it might be steep! No one told me they were going to be steps here! Surprise! Sorpresa! And as you can see it is quite steep so take your time. Behind us here you can see Canon de Texolo and you can hear the waterfall. Let's go see it with our own eyes. And out here you can hear the cicada and we just learned from Armando that only the female makes that noise as she is calling the male. Sounds about right! And it's getting louder and louder! And I can see it right through there! Let's come around the corner here! Amazing! Oh my gosh! So impressive! Incredible! Wow! Coming around that corner and seeing this just blew my mind. It is 80 meters tall. And if it looks familiar it was from the movie Romancing the Stone they used it in the scene where they found the jewel in the cave behind the waterfall. This is the waterfall! How cool is that? And the further you go down the more what you're gonna get wet. There is this nice mist coming off of the cascade and look over here look at the canyon forming and coming down. You're looking a little wet. I am drenched. It feels so good though. The power of this waterfall just shakes you right to the core. It surrounds you when you get down there. The water is just swirling around you in the air and the sound is like this trumpeting in your ears. You have to come here and do it. It is so incredible. And while we're here enjoying this natural wonder we want to give a shout out to our new Patrons: Kenneth, John, Eric, and El Conquistador. Thank you so much for joining this community and for supporting us. We are so grateful for you. The reason why we're standing here right now in front of this incredible waterfall is because of you and we appreciate you from the bottom of our hearts. We sure do! If you want to join our Patreon community we will put the link in the description below. Well all right my tummy is rumbling. Me too! We gotta get to Xico and get some food so come along! Going to the waterfall was free but you do have to pay for parking right here. If you want to stop at a restaurant before you leave there is one right here and it has an incredible view! Come check this out! And he just told us that this little path right here is from Romancing the Stone when Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner run off before they end up swinging over that gorge to the other side. When the Colombians/not Colombians because we are in Mexico we're shooting at them. So cool! Yeah you can totally see it too. Absolutely. I'm going! And we are actually walking the path right now you guys! How cool is this? You definitely gotta watch the movie tonight now! This is actually the spot that they jumped from when they swung across the gorge! It's pretty far down! All right now we're gonna hop in the car we will see you over in Xico! Welcome to Xico and as you can see I got a little bib on me. We are at Restaurante la Concordia and look at Adam. He got his bib tied on him too! Oh yeah. The guy came right over, smiled, tied it up for me. I felt so special. We were like they definitely noticed when we walked in who gets dirty! They know me. So yeah we're just gonna wait for our food but this Pueblo Mágico when we were driving through here so much character, so colorfu!l Papel picado or plastico everywhere. Man it was gorgeous! It has a lot of charms. Can't wait to check it out after lunch. Yeah we're gonna head to the zocalo. We just got our drinks. When we tasted it we were like we know this flavor but we couldn't put our finger on it. But it's actually made from like the root of a climbing plant and it's the base of root beer! Wow! Yeah I know. It has a really unique flavor. It's really delicious. Que es esto? What is this? Xi Que es esto? (What is this?) Xonequi. It looks like beans and cheese. Like a bean soup. Great flavor. Yeah? There's like a sweet and salty in there. And it tastes like spinach. It's probably is like a tree spinach but man it's delicious! Oh good. And look at this. It looks like it has like some dough in it like a little dough ball. Maybe a dumpling? Adam is swimming in my soup! Let's taste him! Wow Adam this is so good! Thank you! You make wonderful soup. And I already got myself. It's already saved you. I think my reputation may have preceded me. And here come the mains! Oh that looks incredible! This is called Xiquenada and it looks like a little sampler plate of everything. Oh yeah there's some cheese, right? Grilled cheese. Some sausage. I see some steak right here, beans, there's some mole. Chile relleno. And then we got the Mole de la Casa, the mole of the house. It all looks so good! Yeah these are both very traditional dishes here in Xico! Let's jump in baby! And I just tried the mole and it's a lot sweeter than a lot of the other ones we've had like compared to like mole poblano. And it comes with a sweet tamale as well. I think they use more fruit in their mole so that's why you get that that sweetness in it. It's absolutely delicious. And definitely a little bit of spice on the back end! We are stuffed like a couple of tamales right now. In front of us is the zocalo and their main church and it is gorgeous check it out! Doesn't it look so cute? Right over here is the kiosko. You can hear music playing everywhere. I think this would definitely be worth coming back and spending a night or an afternoon because you can like feel this great vibe here. Yeah and the weather it's so cool right now you can feel that fresh air moving through. And what do you think that is on the front of the church there? I have no idea they must have had a celebration recently or something. It looks like a like a very decorative piece they just kind of like stuck onto the front of it but it must have taken a really long time to make. Yeah it's gorgeous. And I just asked this gentleman and I think he said it was Flor de Cucharita. And the zocalo kind of spreads out here is like the main little plaza. You can see the Xico sign behind us which is a great place to snap a photo. And we've heard that this town is referred to as the Jewel of Veracruz because it has preserved its traditions and the surrounding nature as you saw at the waterfall so well. And something else that they are known for here is their fruit liquors. They've been offering samples all around town as we're like driving through, they're like, "hey, try my liquor for free!" But you know what we're working and we need to stay focused for you so we're not going to do it but when you come here if you try some of this let us know how it is! Yeah it looks good. We have one last stop today we're heading to the Pueblo Mágico of Coatepec. We'll see you there! Welcome back! We have made it to our second Pueblo Mágico of the day, Coatepec which is located just 10 kilometers north of Xico and 12 kilometers south of Xalapa so it's kind of like sandwiched in between. In front of us here it looks like their main Iglesia it goes by the name Iglesia Jerónimo I believe. And then behind us here looks like the plaza so we're gonna take a walk around there so come with us. Wow we are in the main plaza and it is going off right now! There are people everywhere. There's vendors. They have a little market going on. People are just enjoying themselves, eating some delicious treats around here. It's definitely a lot busier and bigger town than Xico. I think he said the population was 80,000 here and Xico was only 15,000. Yes so it's a lot more lively! I'm sure on the weekends this place is just like crazy. I bet. And this city has a lot to offer but the number one thing is... you guessed it, coffee! As you saw earlier this region is just ripe for it. And I heard that they actually made their mark in 1808 when the Spanish brought over an Arabic coffee seed from Cuba. And they brought it here and they planted it on an Hacienda and it thrived. So from there then they started planting more and more and experimenting and figuring out how they could get this product to do well here and obviously they did. So yeah that's why this city is known as The Coffee Capital of Mexico! That's awesome! And you can even see in this art right here. These are the ripe red coffee beans. They're pouring some coffee right there. I mean what an awesome place. Just over here there's also the this is the town hall and the Coatepec sign. Which is a great place to snap a photo! Aww man you stole my line! We're walking through the market and Antonio gave me some free samples. You know I''m a sucker for free samples. We are walking away with some chocolate covered coffee beans with cinnamon. We got the pistachios with dark chocolate and these marshmallow mint coffee chocolates as well. Antonio I think I might be in love! Gracias. And we got a new subscriber people! I love it! I'm going to ring the bell for you. I'm ringing his bell! Thank you. No, thank you. When you come down here you have got to get his chocolate. Antonio's chocolate. Yes come say hi to Antonio. He's not the Banderas Antonio, but he is the chocolate Antonio and you are going to like him even better! Gracias! Hasta luego! Man we gotta get out of here because I just want to keep on buying more and more delicious treats. Everything's like, "Adam! Please eat me!" But yes thank you so much for joining us today. Honestly you make these days so much fun and without you it just wouldn't be worth it so thank you for being here with us. Yeah if you're a coffee lover, eco-tourism - that cascade was amazing. If you like sweet treats and checking out cute little Pueblo Mágicos we definitely recommend it. Like we said we're we're making it back to Xico and Coatepec because we just barely scratched the surface here. Like I said this was just a little taster both literally and figuratively. Yeah but thanks again if you enjoyed this video please give us a big thumbs up, comment, subscribe, and don't forget to DLING, DLING, DLING, DLING the bell! And before we go we just have to say thank you so much to the man that made today not only fun but so interesting and educational. Armando here was absolutely wonderful and we recommend him to anyone that's looking for a tour in Spanish or English. He offers a ton of different stuff all over the region so definitely look him up when you come here. We are going to include his information in the description below. Yes A+! You look for me. A++! I wait for you! Yes he's amazing! I wait for you in Veracruz, in Xalapa. Perfect! Gracias. Gracias. We'll see you, next time! Adios!