When it comes to flavor, Mexican coffee is a true hidden gem. Its rich and bold taste will wake up your taste buds and leave you craving for more- all without that bitter aftertaste that we all hate.
Mexican coffee is as unique as Mexico itself. Mexico's diverse geography and climate create the perfect conditions for growing coffee. From the high-altitude regions of Chiapas to the volcanic soils of Veracruz, each coffee bean absorbs the essence of its surroundings, resulting in a unique and distinctive flavor profile.
Mexican coffee farmers are committed to sustainable farming practices. By supporting Mexican coffee, you're also supporting environmentally friendly farming practices.
Many Mexican coffee producers follow fair and ethical trade practices, ensuring that farmers receive fair compensation for their hard work. By choosing Mexican coffee, you're contributing to a more equitable coffee industry and supporting the livelihoods of local farmers.
Whether you prefer a classic drip coffee, a smooth espresso, or a refreshing cold brew, Mexican coffee can do it all. Its versatile flavor profile makes it suitable for various brewing methods, allowing you to explore different ways to enjoy your cup of joe.
Coffee has a long-standing tradition in Mexican culture. It has been a part of daily life for generations, and its significance is deeply ingrained in the country's history. By embracing Mexican coffee, you're connecting with a rich cultural heritage that spans centuries.
When you choose Mexican coffee, you're not only getting a delicious beverage, but you're also supporting local communities. Coffee production is a vital source of income for many families in Mexico, and your purchase directly contributes to their well-being.
Exploring the world of Mexican coffee allows you to discover hidden gems. From small, family-owned coffee farms to unique regional blends, there's always something new and exciting to try. Expand your coffee horizons and embark on a flavorful journey through Mexico's coffee regions.
But we are more than just another patriotic coffee company.
We aim to go above just slapping cool designs on a bag that remind you of the country you love...
What you won't see on the websites of these famous patriotic coffee companies is pictures of the farmers. I wonder why? Maybe because that wouldn't jive with your "All-American" image?
Who grew your coffee?
Who made your morning cup of deliciousness possible?
At Con Todo Coffee, we can answer that question.
Marco, Polo, Doña Pancha, and Macario are stars of the show. They are the heroes. They are the people that we should think of every morning that we drink our coffee.
]]>Until we started Con Todo Coffee I never really stopped to think about that saying and what it meant. But now as a business I get it! Yes, we sell our coffee for much more than what you can buy coffee for at the supermarket...
We ARE proud of our coffee. Yes it costs more than other coffee, but it’s not other coffee. We aren't interesting in selling a cheap product for the cheapest possible price.
We seek out partnerships with farms that place not only an emphasis on growing high quality coffee, but also that place an emphasis on paying farmers what they deserve.
Unfortunately, that means the un-roasted coffee that we buy is quite a bit more expensive than lower grade, non-sustainable coffee.
However, it means that we can sleep at night knowing that while you may have had to pay a few more bucks for your coffee, that Macario didn’t have to pay the price of you buying the cheap stuff. So yeah, we are pretty proud of our coffee. If you're one of the lucky ones that gets it enjoy Con Todo Coffee each morning, we hope you feel proud of it too!
What’s the difference between a Miller Lite and a craft beer made at a local brewery? One is mass produced with the cheapest ingredients while using cheap labor so they can sell it at the cheapest possible price...
The other is made with an emphasis in quality and a uniqueness in flavor that only a true artist could bring out.
That’s not to say that there isn’t a time and place for a nice cold Miller Lite. But you drink it for a cheap buzz, not because it's the best beer available.
Around here we don’t sell a cheap buzz.
Have you ever bought a watermelon only to cut into it and find that it isn’t ripe? It kind of tastes like a watermelon, but without all of the good flavors? Yeah, that’s no fun!
Supermarket coffee is kind of like that bad watermelon. The beans weren’t picked whenever they were ripe and they were roasted the year my suegra was born!
Con Todo Coffee is kind of like that perfectly ripe watermelon... It is hand selected at the peak of ripeness and is always freshly roasted ensuring you get the most flavor from your coffee.
What’s the difference between Wonder-bread and a fresh loaf of bread from a local bakery?
One is mass produced with the cheapest possible labor and the cheapest possible products.
The other is hand-made with love, care, attention to detail and is treated as an art.
Shop our entire collection of small batch roasted coffees today.
]]>Except it gets even worse. They have become the McDonald's of coffee all the while charging gourmet prices for a non-gourmet product.
Don’t get us wrong, Starbucks is awesome. The “Third Place” concept that they created has completely changed our cities, our lifestyles, and ultimately our world.
But they have tricked you. Because their coffee is so expensive, everybody assumes that it must be high quality coffee beans roasted to perfection... they aren't.
We have seen with our own two eyes where Starbucks buys some of its Mexican coffee. They aren't buying the highest quality available. Which is fine. Expect for the part where they charge you prices that indicate it is the world's best coffee.
We will readily admit that Starbucks is genius. But the truth is that they are nothing more than a magician pulling a fast one on the audience. It's fascinating!. That is until you realize you're being taken advantage of!
Starbucks may have started with quality in mind.
So did McDonalds.
If your main focus is to drive as much revenue and growth as possible, so much so that you’ll offer silly items like pink drinks, then you are absolutely no longer focused on serving high quality coffee. It’s that simple.
But dang it they have such good Wifi!
My mom doesn't even drink our coffee...How good could it really be!?
To be fair, my mom doesn't drink coffee at all, but still!
We are going to shoot it straight with you, we are extremely biased!
Of course we think our coffee is delicious, it's our business! The owner of Folger's would tell you that their coffee tastes delicious too! But would the owner of Folger's point out all of the reasons not to buy their coffee?
I doubt it.
But that is exactly what we are about to do!
That's the honest truth. Our coffee isn't cheap, we only offer a monthly subscription, and we only have two types of coffees.
1) The coffee beans that we purchase are the highest quality available. We didn't want to buy (and sell) coffee that was just "good enough". We sought out the absolute highest quality coffee we could find in Mexico. That costs us a lot of money. But we are ok with that. Our goal is to bring the very best of Mexico into your home. That's not a corner we are willing to cut.
2) We give back a portion of our profits to the school at Finca Las Chicharras. We could cut our costs by choosing not to give back to the kids at the farm but we would rather risk not being in business than to not give back to the communities that make our business and your morning cup of coffee possible.
3) Because we are a small business we don't receive large discounts on supplies (bags, shipping, packaging, etc.) like Amazon or other large corporations do. For example, if we ordered 100,000 coffee bags we would pay significantly less for them than we do only purchasing 1,000-5,000 at a time. If you're looking for cheap, no small business is going to truly be able to compete with the likes of Walmart and Amazon. Think about the cost of cupcakes from a local bakery versus at Walmart? The bakery can only compete on quality. That is our aim.
If you want cheap coffee, we aren't your people.
The truth is that there are probably 1,000 reasons not to buy Con Todo Coffee. Maybe you hate watch us on Youtube, maybe you don't drink Mexican coffee, maybe you don't like buying things online, the reasons are endless.
However, if you don't hate us, you love Mexico, you drink coffee, you order things online all of the time, AND you want high quality coffee that is ethically sourced, we think you should give Con Todo Coffee a shot!
P.S.
As for only offering two roasts (medium and dark), that is going to change in the near future! ;)
P.P.S
As for monthly subscriptions, our goal is to offer single purchases as we expand and grow to have more roast styles from different regions of Mexico.
]]>When we launched Con Todo Coffee just 18 months ago, we knew we wanted to provide freshly roasted, 100% Mexican coffee straight to your door since we believe that you should not have to be in Mexico to enjoy a cup of the world's best coffee. We have searched the entire country for coffee farms who share in our commitment to quality, transparency, sustainability, and to improving the lives of farmers and their families.
We are a small, family-owned business - The two of us serve as the Operations Department, Research and Development Group, Marketing and Sales Division, Customer Service Unit, and Accounting and Finance Team.
**And trust us, whenever you place an order with Con Todo Coffee, we literally high five and celebrate– because you believe in us. You believe in our mission and you believe in our values.
Every time you buy Con Todo Coffee, you are investing in more than specialty coffee. You are investing in the future of the farmers’ children by directly supporting the school at Finca Las Chicharras with school supplies, maintaining the classroom and facilities, and supporting the teaching staff.
On behalf of us both: THANK YOU for making Con Todo Coffee possible! We hope you have a great fall/winter and send you our very best.
With gratitude,
Hillary and Greg
Almost none of the decisions we make as a company make any business sense. While we hope to run a successful business that can pay for our tacos, our ultimate aim is not to maximize profits.
There are a lot of corners being cut in the coffee industry...
We could purchase lower grade coffee and charge you speciality grade prices for it. Yes people are doing that...
We could choose not to give back a portion of our profits to the school at the Finca las Chicharras.
And we don't have to visit the farms ourselves as part of the coffee selection process.
Normally, if a coffee company/roaster wants to purchase coffee, they work with a coffee importer. These importers are essentially middlemen between the farm and the buyers in the US.
We bypassed this process and went directly to the farms ourselves.
We talk to the farmers oursevles, we inspect the plants ourselves, and we take the social media pictures ourselves. Does that make good business sense? Probably not.
It would be a lot easier for a coffee middleman to send us pictures that they took!
(Side note: We have even seen pictures that WE took on other coffee company's websites. Don't believe everything you see on the internet!)
We could certainly cut costs on our shirts. Working with Jorge in Puerto Vallarta doesn’t make business sense. It would be much easier and cheaper to have shirts made from some large print on demand shirt company.
The same can be said of our handmade mugs.
Truth be told, the process of creating our new mugs was pretty long and difficult. All for something that isn’t a very profitable “business venture”.
But the mugs are amazing and that's all we wanted; to put out amazing products that you love and more importantly, that support the artists that made them.
If you want to buy coffee from a company that makes great business decisions, go to Dunkin' Donuts.
If on the other hand you value quality, farmer first businesses, and artisanal products then you've come to the right place ;)
]]>Polo, Macario, and Doña Pancha come first.
We believe in;
farmers over profits
farmers over customers
That means putting Macario over our bottom line and your monthly expenditures.
If you want cheap coffee, go to Costco.
If on the other hand you want great tasting coffee that put's farmers first, you've come to the right place!
]]>What does it mean to Live Con Todo?
To do anything "con todo" is to go full out and to give everything you have to everything that you do.
Too often many of us, ourselves included, are just floating through life waiting for things to happen to us. Living Con Todo is about living intentionally. It is chasing your dreams and being an active participant in your life. It is waking up and realizing that we can either decide what it is we want in life or we can let somebody else will decide for us.
Living Con Todo is making the hard decision to wake up early to run.
Living Con Todo is putting your phone down whenever your little girl wants you to play dolls with her.
Living Con Todo is going to bed early to be fully rested for work the next day.
Living Con Todo is not ordering extra fries with your meal.
Living Con Todo is about effort.
For far too long we had goals and dreams that we never acted on. They were nothing more than pen strokes on a piece of paper. We were too afraid to even take the first step in attempting any of them.
Has this ever happened to you?
What we have learned in going after our goals and dreams is that it isn’t about achieving the actual goal; it is about stepping into the unknown and going for it! It is giving everything you have in an effort to chase that dream.
Are you living Con Todo?
]]>Are you a coffee snob that weighs out every gram of coffee to prepare in a Chemex or do you just throw some coffee in an old school coffee pot and call it good enough?
Are all of the measurements and weird coffee contraptions really necessary to make a good cup of coffee?
We wanted to find out for ourselves so we brewed one cup of coffee in a traditional coffee maker and we brewed one cup of coffee using a French press. We used the same coffee for each brew and each finished brewing at the same time.
First, we have to admit that we are very biased against making coffee in a coffee pot. If you’re going to buy and prepare specialty coffee, it seems to us that it is worth a little extra effort to make it taste as good as it possibly can. For our taste test Greg wasn’t aware of which coffee cup contained which coffee. We figured this would remove any preconceived ideas he had about which cup would taste better.
What did we find out?
The coffee made in the French press tasted way better than the coffee made in the coffee pot!
It seemed to have much more intense and pronounced flavors whereas the coffee made in the Mr. Coffee coffee maker tasted very muted and bland. Keep in mind that we used a very high quality coffee that was recently roasted.
It tasted as if the coffee pot stole all of the unique flavors from the beans!
Although this was a blind taste test, it was far from scientific. However, it did confirm our beliefs that coffee made from the coffee pot just isn’t nearly as good. Whatever you do, please don’t brew high quality coffee in a low quality coffee pot! That is like microwaving a filet mignon!
If you are just getting started in the specialty coffee world and you want to make a delicious cup of coffee, we believe that using the French press is a great place to start. We will link our recipe for creating a great tasting cup of coffee from the French press here.
What’s your favorite way to brew coffee?
What experiments should we run next?
]]>It’s like cooking a filet mignon in the microwave. It just isn't right!
There are a thousand ways to prepare coffee, but we will share with you one of our favorite methods that is a relatively simple way to prepare your coffee.
You’re going to need a french press, a food scale, and a kettle or teapot.
Summary:
We know that you’ll love the flavors you get out of your coffee so much better. Let us know how this works for you!
]]>You don’t have to buy our coffee, but please don’t buy from these places…
Don’t buy coffee from the same company that makes your peanut butter.
Don’t buy coffee from the same company that makes your ketchup.
Don’t buy coffee from the same company that makes dog treats.
Don’t buy coffee from the same company that makes your cat’s dinner.
And don’t buy coffee from the same company that is known for making mac and cheese…
Would you get sushi at a gas station?
Why not?
]]>Whenever you buy a nice tequila do you shoot it or do you sip it slowly? Why?
Ok, maybe you don’t drink tequila.
Would you ever shotgun a craft beer? Probably not.
Would you ever chug a vintage wine?
While Con Todo Coffee isn’t a several hundred dollar bottle of a fine wine, I think you get my point.
The entirety of your day might be wild and hectic, but give yourself fifteen minutes of something calm, special, and meaningful each morning.
Then you can attack your day con todo!
]]>Would you ever eat a filet mignon in the car on the way to work? Probably not.
Mostly because who eats a filet mignon at 7 in the morning!? But also because that isn’t something you want to eat on the go.
It is to be savored and enjoyed.
While we understand that your life can be busy and hectic, please don’t drink Con Todo Coffee, or any specialty coffee for that matter, on the go.
Drink it while you’re reading the news, contemplating the complexities of space travel, or writing down your day’s to-do list, just don’t rush it.
Sip it.
What does it taste like?
Where did it come from?
How was it made?
Who made it?
Here’s a good analogy for all of our tequila lovers out there…
Whenever you buy a nice tequila do you shoot it or do you sip it slowly? Why?
Ok, maybe you don’t drink tequila.
Would you ever shotgun a craft beer? Probably not.
Would you ever chug a vintage wine?
While Con Todo Coffee isn’t a several hundred dollar bottle of a fine wine, I think you get my point.
So slow down.
Take your time.
The entirety of your day might be wild and hectic, but give yourself fifteen minutes of something calm, special, and meaningful each morning.
Then you can attack your day con todo!
]]>
Let me start by saying that I think the true answer to that question is incredibly complex and involves weird ad campaigns and a lot of history…but I do have a theory!
Before my theory, I will say that I don’t believe that Mexico as a whole has put together such a concerted effort to put its coffee on the world stage quite like Brazil and Colombia have. The impact from these coordinated efforts from coffee organizations and entire governments cannot be discounted.
But it’s more fun to have conspiracy theories!
Now for my theory…
I think Mexico is probably one of the most misunderstood countries on earth.
Unfortunately, it is often looked down upon and thought of as wild and dangerous.
I believe that the same misconceptions about Mexico as a whole extend to the Mexican coffee industry. While many coffee experts believe that Mexican coffee tastes generally the same regardless of where it was grown, Mexican coffee is actually extremely diverse. The flavors you get from Puebla, Veracruz, Chiapas, and Nayarit are all so incredibly different. Some have notes of chocolate and caramel, while others taste like sipping on a green caramel apple sucker!
The sad truth is that to the general consumer coffee from Costa Rica just sounds a lot sexier and more exotic than a coffee from Mexico.
To the average consumer, Mexican coffee just doesn’t have that same sex appeal.
We hope to change that!
I don’t know if we can convince the world that Mexico is as great as we know it is, but for those of you that already know, we hope that Con Todo Coffee can be a daily reminder of this beautiful country that we call home.
]]>We see so many coffee companies that are promoting their coffee as high quality, premium, or gourmet coffee yet their prices don't reflect that.
Here's what we mean.
At this time, truly export grade, premium green coffee (not yet roasted beans) costs anywhere from $3-5 dollars per pound. Again, this coffee isn't roasted yet and isn't ready to consume...
So if premium green coffee beans costs 4 dollars a pound, how can they be selling a roasted and packaged bag for 4 dollars!?
Something is off here!
How can it be premium grade coffee if the final product costs less than what the raw product costs?
I’m sure there are some volume discounts to be accounted for, but something just isn’t adding up.
The next time you see a “premium” bag of coffee for 6 dollars… just know that those beans likely aren’t the highest quality beans available on the market.
That's fine if that is what you want. Just don't let a little tricky marketing fool you.
If it seems too good to be true...
Rant over. You can go on with your day!
]]>
If something is being sold for a bargain, who is paying the price?
If is not you, then who?
]]>Unfortunately, we never think about that fact and if we do, we don’t give it a second thought.
Somebody working for incredibly cheap wages in a far away land is often too much for us to think about.
Rather, it’s easier NOT to think about it.
Unfortunately, it’s just the way our modern world is built; it’s too commonplace to really give second thought to.
That changed for us whenever we started Con Todo Coffee.
Whenever that worker that is typically unseen and forgotten about is standing right in front of you, you suddenly realize the importance of paying fair wages and running a business in not only a sustainable way, but in a way that is ethical.
The farmers that grow Con Todo Coffee aren’t just random people in a faraway place in some discreet factory.
Their names are Marcos, Macario, and Polo. And the fact is that they want many of the same things that you want in life. To provide for themselves and their families, to be free of suffering, to have a little free time every now and then, and to live a happy and joyful life.
The internet has completely dehumanized the shopping and buying process.
If you want something, you just click a button on Amazon and it arrives in a few hours! Little to no thought about who created your product is ever given.
One of the things we love about living in Mexico is the real human connections you forge through daily activities. Whenever you buy something for your home, there is a good chance you are going to speak to the person that made it. Every morning that you buy bread, you have the opportunity to speak to the baker that baked it. That is truly one the most beautiful things about living in Mexico.
Compare that experience with the experience of buying a loaf of sliced bread from the supermarket…or even a step further, having that loaf of bread show up on your doorstep with grocery delivery.
One of our goals with Con Todo Coffee is to re-humanize the shopping and buying process and to truly bring the best parts of Mexico into your lives.
Whenever big businesses cut corners and cut costs, it often comes at the expense of farmers, factory workers, and other hardworking people that they don’t want you to know even exist.
That’s bull sh•$.
At Con Todo Coffee, we do things differently.
Macario is front and center on our El Clásico bags for a reason.
Without him, we don’t exist.
Whenever we visit coffee farms we want to be able to look workers in the eye and know that they aren’t being slighted, tricked, or taken advantage of.
So the next time you buy that cheap shirt or you place an order on Amazon, we ask you to really stop and think about who made that product.
If it is being sold for a bargain, who is paying the price?
If not you, who?
]]>We love getting this question!
We have been absolutely blown away by your response to the launch of Con Todo Coffee and by your support for our new business! Con Todo Coffee would not be possible without you all and from the very first time we started thinking about starting a coffee company, we knew we wanted to bring you all behind the scenes and share what is going well for Con Todo Coffee and, from our perspective, what we are struggling with.
Part of knowing “todo” (everything) about your coffee is having a look at the business side as well!
Production at the farm is going really well! Our contact at Finca Las Chicharras has informed us that this year they are expecting a 30% increase in coffee bean production this year!
Also, the kids at the school are loving playing with everything you all sent them a few months back.
Whenever we started Con Todo Coffee, we wanted to make sure that we would build in a way to give back directly to the farmers and their families. While we chose to work with Finca Las Chicharras partially based on the premise that they pay the highest salaries to their workers, we knew we wanted to give back even more to the very people that make our daily cup of joe possible. To that, we donate $1 per month for every Con Todo Coffee subscription purchased. Whenever we started this business, we were simply hoping to sell out of our initial coffee bean purchase (about 500 bags worth) over a whole year...we never could have imagined sending out more than that much every single month!
It is incredible to know that, because of the success we have had thus far with Con Todo Coffee, you all are making a huge impact with the students at the Finca and their entire families. Thank you for being a part of something truly special!
The purpose of this article is to pull back the curtain a little and show you what’s really going on. It’s time to get real. What are we struggling with?
Here is the truth: running a coffee company is a lot more work than we anticipated!
However, we are blessed to say that it has been more difficult than we expected because we have WAY more orders and more interest in our coffee than we anticipated. We would much rather struggle with growing pains than the alternative which would be not selling any coffee!
But what specifically are we struggling with at Con Todo Coffee?
Logistics
Logistics
Logistics
Logistics are kicking our butts!
Getting our coffee beans from Finca las Chicharras in Chiapas to Dallas, ordering poly mailer bags, and ordering coffee retail bags (the pretty teal ones you all love!) and ensuring that we have enough of each, at the right time, and that we order them at the right time.
Coffee can take anywhere from 4 to 14 days to arrive to Texas.
Poly mailer bags ship in about a week.
Coffee bags take about a month.
And don't get us started about shipping labels, boxes, and tape! :)
Keeping track of the inventory of each tiny piece and knowing how much to order and when to place that order has been a struggle for us thus far. Having said that, with about 6-7 months under our belts, we are starting to figure things out. We now have a pretty good estimate of how long each product will last us, but that’s not to say that we don’t sometimes randomly wake up in the middle of the night wondering if we have enough retail bags!
As new business owners, it is easy to get bogged down by all of the things that we know we are not doing, or fret about things we may not be doing well. We are our own worst critics. But the truth is that as a whole, things are going really well with Con Todo Coffee and we are SO excited about the future!
We have a Facebook page!
That sounds like something super simple, but you have no idea how difficult it has been to create a Facebook page for Con Todo Coffee. We have created FOUR different pages now, with the first three being banned by Facebook.
Why were they banned? Couldn't tell you!
Let’s not focus on the negative :) We have a Facebook page now and we are excited to finally be able to use Facebook to share recipes, what we are drinking each morning, updates, sales, and more! Apart from Youtube, Facebook is really the heart of our community so it feels great to be able to connect with you again! Here is a link to our page: 100% Mexican Coffee - Con Todo Coffee
The next thing that is going well: the release of our dark roast!
We have been extremely happy by our sales of our limited edition 'Levanta Muertos' dark roast coffee. More importantly, we are really excited about the feedback that we received from all of you! If you haven't had a chance to get yours yet, here is a link to buy our Levanta Muertos!
We are not sure if a dark roast coffee is here to stay permanently or not, but thus far, we are liking the idea of offering two great tasting roasts.
What do you think?
Should we offer a dark roast coffee year round or should we make it something special and only offer it seasonally?
What about a light roast? Is that something you would like to try?
There are so many more things that we are struggling with and much more that we are having success with, but we hope that this quick glimpse behind the scenes of Con Todo Coffee was intriguing for you.
We hope to provide updates like this in the future. If this is something you enjoy and would like to see in the future, let us know in the comments or shoot us a message on Instagram @ConTodoCoffee!
Live Con Todo,
Hillary and Greg Kennon