COFFEE IN MEXICO AND OTHER COUWTEIES. 155 



6,789,693 pounds, valued at $1,265,970 ; 1879, 8,307,040 pounds ; 

 1878, 6,337,063 pounds. The tree is grown chiefly in the States 

 of Yera Cruz, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Colima, on the Sierra, and in the 

 mountainous parts of Southern Mexico. The product is classed 

 either as coast or mountain coffee, the distinguishing features of 

 which are that while the bean of the coast coffee is light and 

 spongy, that of the mountain product is hard and flinty. Mexican 

 coffee is known in the New York market as Tabasco, Jalapa, Cor- 

 dova, and Oaxaca. The first named is a coast coffee, generally of 

 poor quality, as it is cultivated in the tierra caliente (hot region), 

 lying along the coast of the Gulf of Campeche ; it is the lowest 

 grade of Mexican coffee. That designated Jalapa has a small, 

 yellowish bean, rather short and wide, but irregular in size, im- 

 perfectly cleaned, and including many broken beans, and those 

 covered with patches of the brown ianer skin of the berry. The 

 Sierra bean is small, with a greenish cast, and approximates in 

 character to mountain coifee. It is grown on table-lands, and it 

 is not, as a rule, nicely cleaned. 



Cordova furnishes a larger and longer bean, uniform in size, 

 well cleaned, and usually green in color. This coffee is often pol- 

 ished and used as a substitute for Eio. From the same district 

 there is exported a large white bean that is called Mexican Java. 

 All of the above, except that named Tabasco, are usually sold 

 from first hands under the name of Cordova coffee. Oaxaca 

 is a rough, green, mountain coffee, coming from the province 

 of Oaxaca and surrounding districts. It has the dark green, 

 semi-transparent appearance of a mountain coffee, but unfortu- 

 nately is not properly hulled and cleaned, as much of it has the 

 inner skin of the berry attached, and many of the beans are 

 smashed, owing to the planters using a common roller instead of 

 improved machinery. Were this coffee properly cleaned and care- 

 fully assorted, it would rival in appearance and flavor almost any 

 upland coffee raised in Costa Rica and Jamaica. In Colima, on 

 the west coast, is grown a berry usually called Tepic, the bean, 

 when prepared, approaching in style the small flinty Mocha. 

 Almost all of it is consumed in the province where grown, selling 

 for forty to fifty cents per pound on the plantation, the select pea- 

 berry commanding from $1 to $1.25 per pound. 



