FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Mayorga is the last name of the company founder and owner Martin Mayorga.
Yes, all of Mayorga Organics coffee and farms that we work with are certified organic by major international certifying bodies.
To become certified organic a farmer must go through rigorous auditing and inspections by the certifying body not only when they apply but throughout the entire time they hold the certificate. We also work very closely with our farmers. The relationships we build with them are direct and we touch bases with them continuously throughout the year. We routinely visit the farms and speak with the farmers about what their needs are. We also employ agronomists in some countries to assist with soil assessments, crop optimization and efficient use of land. We are very engaged with and hands on when it comes to our farming partners.
Coffee has a points system for grading coffee that is accepted around the world. The coffee graded both before and after roasting. When the coffee is green (unroasted) it is graded based on a defect count. When roasted, coffee is graded based on its sensorial attributes like fragrance, aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, intensity, body, and balance. Each category receives a score between 6 to 10 points The coffee is also graded against itself for uniformity, clean cup, sweetness, and lastly overall score. Specialty coffee is defined as a score of 80 or higher.
Espresso is a brewing method, by which hot water is forced with pressure to push through finely ground coffee. Espresso can be made with a wide variety of coffee roast types, single origins or blends. Espresso is not a specific roast type or bean quality.
Our Café Cubano Roast is not from Cuba. It is a blend of Central and South American coffees. Our Café Cubano Roast is an homage to Cubanos Martin interacted with both in Nicaragua and Miami. As a child in Nicaragua, Martin Mayorga spent time at cigar factories with his father interacting with Cuban cigar makers who had fled Castro's government. He recalled the men playing dominos, talking about their plight upon leaving their home country, and drinking a distinctly dark and syrupy coffee. Later on when the Mayorga family moved to the U.S., Martin was able to appreciate first hand this rich coffee while spending time with Cuban immigrants in Little Havana.
Much like French Roast doesn’t contain coffee from France, our Café Cubano Roast does not contain any coffee from Cuba. As stated on our packaging and website, Café Cubano Roast is a blend and roast style which was made famous by the Cuban population in south Florida. Moreover, there is an embargo on doing business commercially with Cuba. The blend is disclosed on our website. It’s Nicaragua/Honduras/Peru.
Although we have previously carried coffees from various countries in the past, our focus is mainly on Latin America because of our cultural connection. We are a Latino and Immigrant owned company, 85% of our staff are either immigrants or first generation US born children of immigrants. If we are going to change the systematic poverty created by old world trading and ideology we are going to begin in a place where we have roots, speak the language, and know firsthand the trials and tribulations of the people in those areas, because that's where we come from.
The answer is easy, which country do you have ties with? :)
Chances are if you are from Honduras, Honduras will be the best, or if you’re from Peru, Peru will be the best. The real answer to this question is all of our coffees are the best, our farming partners work really hard to produce quality coffees.
Our SQF certified facility is allergen free. We do not process nuts at our facility and none of our coffee contains nut or nut products, even our Hazelnut blend. If you see ‘almond’ or ‘nutty’ listed as a description on our coffee it is only a tasting note (think of wine tasting) and is what our team tastes when they cup our coffees. In the case of our flavored Hazelnut blend we use organic compliant, naturally derived flavoring blended with lightly roasted coffee beans to produce our signature Hazelnut flavor. We’re very conscientious about this topic
Yes. We are certified Kosher by the Orthodox Union.
Our coffee is great via any brewing method. We recommend two tablespoons of coffee for every 8oz of water. If you have a scale we recommend 1g of coffee for 16.5ml of water.
All of the farmers we work with are certified organic, and grow shade grown coffee that preserves the natural landscape and native flora and fauna. The farmers we work with are dedicated to preserving the environment and are very cognizant of how their actions affect the bird, insect and wildlife around them. Many of our farmers do carry the bird-friendly certification themselves. And while we can not quantify the specific percentage of canopy cover the majority of our farmer partners have about 60% canopy coverage. We know this because we visit farms throughout the year and have well established relationships with our farmers. Because of this we have made the decision not to pay for the bird friendly certification on our bags. To maintain use of the Smithsonian's Bird Friendly logo on our bags it costs a yearly fee when we import the coffee and an additional per pound fee for the roasted coffee we produce. We choose to use the money that would go to paying for the use of the BF logo and add it to the price we pay per pound directly to the farmers we partner with. We feel this makes the best use of our resources without compromising the environment.
You may learn more about our producer partners here:
Our organic Café Cubano Roast is a blend of coffees from small farmer cooperatives in Honduras, Peru and/or Nicaragua. What gives this blend a unique flavor is the manner in which we roast it to balance the smooth sweetness with a bit of smokiness.
Green coffee requires high heat and movement to become roasted coffee. If you would like to use home tools to accomplish your roast we would recommend a pan, a wooden spoon and some heat. Just make sure you have some good ventilation, stop top roasting can be a little smoky, it might be a good way to test the functionality of your smoke alarms at the same time.
Unfortunately, we do not sell to or support resellers of our product on Amazon or third party e-commerce sites. We are focused on creating value for our customers and do so by only selling direct.
There are companies who have made interesting claims about mycotoxins in coffee as a marketing strategy. The fact is that almost all specialty grade, fresh crop washed coffees are free of mycotoxins. Given our focus on organic practices as well as our direct engagement and expedited logistics, the chances of mycotoxins developing are miniscule.
As part of our high level food safety guidelines, we run third party lab tests twice a year for multiple pathogens as well as mold. We have not found any discernible levels of molds in any of our tests.
When it comes to our coffee we only roast on demand. This means we project customer demand using current online orders and historic sales from the same period to estimate what our inventory levels should be to allow us to meet customer needs without selling out prematurely or over roasting.
When you order from us directly you will be receiving incredibly fresh coffee that has been hand roasted and packaged in small batches. It is very possible depending on what is ordered that the coffee may have been roasted that day. Most of our coffees, however, will have been roasted within that week or so.
When making espresso it is actually preferable to use coffee that has been roasted between 7-21 days prior to use. As coffee ages after roasting the more the flavors have time to fully develop.
Coffee needs to rest at least 8 hours after roasting before it is brewed so the flavors can develop. It is actually advisable to wait two days after roasting to have the best "fresh" experience. Coffee that is consumed too early after roasting will have a weak body and papery taste. The first week after roasting coffee is in a continuous state of evolution in terms of degassing and flavor development.