Little Waves Coffee x Reyna Tropical - Malegría Coffee Beans

Malegría, the portmanteau, born from a 1998 Manu Chao song by the same name, is akin to bittersweet and blends the Spanish “mal” which means “bad" and “alegría” which means “happiness,” and marks Reyna Tropical’s movement from a duo to a solo project.

Malegría is a 50/50 blend of Mexican coffees; one from Chiapas by the women’s group of Bella Vista, and a blend from Oaxaca.

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Tasting notes from Reyna Tropical:

classic, calm, with notes of cacao that feels like velvet in your mouth and reminds you of waking up at your abuelas house and drinking un cafecito con un pan or if you’re en la costa, sitting on the beach in the morning brisk air being warmed by a full, enveloping-blanket-like cafe. Coffee but the color of sand and slow moving, shallow clear ocean bay water 💦

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Bella Vista Mayan Harvest’s Cafe de Mujeres is sourced from 168 family-owned farms located in communities within the Bella Vista municipality in Chiapas.

Rosalba Cifuentes Tovia’s family has been growing coffee in Bella Vista for over a century, and Rosalba has dedicated herself to helping producers in the area. Rosalba’s story is powerful, and the work she does with Bella Vista is equally powerful. She was raised in the Bella Vista community and has dedicated herself to helping small-scale producers in the area. She also works with female producers in the area to promote their coffees, improve quality, and move past the gender inequity in the region.

Thanks to her dedication, Mayan Harvest coffees get better and better every year. This is our fourth year purchasing from Mayan Harvest, and the third time we’ve offered from the Mayan Harvest Women’s Group. We taste cinnamon, caramel, and apple cider; we think this is a shining example of the beauty Mexican coffees have to offer. We hope you love it as much as we do!

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The Mazateca region is famous for its diverse flora and fauna. High in the mountains of Northern Oaxaca, the community there has a culture rich with ritual, legend, and tradition: it is the birthplace of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), created to commemorate death and the importance of life, and to honor our families and ancestry.

In 2016, a group of producers gathered and created an organization (called ORCE Mazateca) with the objective of boosting the production of specialty coffee in the area and improve the livelihood of hundreds of small-scale producers. Coffee quality has greatly improved in the Mazateca region during the last few years thanks to these efforts.