It's May 3rd in Wisconsin and I'm wearing a hoodie at 5:16 in the morning.
The last two weeks of April were a lie. We had a couple of warm afternoons that made you think the season had turned, then the next morning would arrive somewhere between 32 and 38 degrees and remind you it hadn't. The afternoons keep teasing. The mornings keep telling the truth. Cold, cold, cold.
This is when I reach for Mexico.
— The Coffee
Five Sixteen's Mexico is a single-origin from the Chiapas region in southern Mexico — high altitude, slow grown, washed process. What you taste is what makes Mexico Mexico: soft, clean, and chocolate-forward. Not the candy bar kind of chocolate. The dark kind. The 70% cacao kind that doesn't apologize for being a little bitter on the back end.
When I cup this coffee black, dark chocolate is the first thing I get and the last thing I get. There's some toasted almond in the middle if you're paying attention. But it's chocolate that anchors the whole cup, and that's why this is the bag I keep nearest the machine.
— How I Drink It
Always as a double shot espresso. Always.
I don't drink drip coffee so I can only speak from the espresso pull. Mexico concentrates everything I want from it — the chocolate gets richer, the body gets bigger, and the clean finish still lands but with more weight behind it.
If I'm being honest, I just love chocolate. And espresso is the most direct way to get there.
The Breville is programmed for a 15-second double, fine grind, dialed in. Two ounces in a small cup. Drunk in two sips. That's the whole ritual.
— Why This One, This Week
I picked Mexico for the lineup because I wanted something approachable — a coffee that could be the first single origin somebody tries and not feel like work. But that's not why I'm drinking it this week.
This week it's because the mornings have been cold and uncertain, and Mexico is a cup that meets you where you are. It's not bright and acidic asking you to wake up. It's not a bold dark roast trying to punch you in the face. It's just a steady, chocolate-rich shot of warmth at 5:16 a.m. when your fingers are still cold on the espresso handle and the kitchen window is still showing you a sky that hasn't decided what it's going to do yet.
Some coffees are for showing off. Mexico is for showing up.
Want to try it? Shop Mexico →