From the farms
Finca La Ilusión
San Andrés de los Gama, Temascaltepec, Estado de México, Mexico
Finca La Ilusión is a specialty coffee farm in San Andrés de los Gama, in the municipality of Temascaltepec, in the State of Mexico. It sits at 2,100 meters above sea level, where Don Federico Barrueta and his wife Francisca Rodríguez grow Caturra and Bourbon across two and a half hectares, using a traditional washed process.
Don Federico left a career as an aviation mechanic in the Air Force to take up coffee in 2003, moved by his father's illness. Starting from wild coffee plants he found on his native land, he built La Ilusión into one of the region's most emblematic farms, recognized in national competitions such as the Cup of Excellence.
Today he passes on what he has learned: he built a teaching space at the farm to train other growers and offers tours with cuppings and walkthroughs of the post-harvest process.