Day 7 - New Mexico Piñon Coffee

All About that Piñon
How do you piñon? #pinoncoffee #alldayeveryday #tistheseason
Posted by New Mexico Pinon Coffee on Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Around the Journal Center district of Albuquerque not too far from the Balloon Fiesta Fields the smell of sweet coffee permeates thought the crisp New Mexican air. That smell is coming from New Mexico's largest coffee roasting company. Let me share with you a little bit about New Mexico Piñon Coffee. 

Back in the early 1990s, James Franco and his business parter started to experiment with different blends of coffee at their bookstore and coffee house. The two knew they had a hit on their hands when they came across the perfect combination of piñon and coffee. Unfortunately, Franco's business partner passed away and Franco decided to sell the bookstore and coffee house. After the tragic loss, Franco held on to his memories of their perfect coffee blend. Using the blend as his inspiration, he then decided to open Piñon Coffee in 1994 in the back of an old red Chevrolet pick-up truck. In the beginning, Franco had a dog, named Decaf, that can be seen on some of the old labeling as he was once thought of as the company's mascot. The coffee quickly became popular throughout New Mexico and created the foundation for what is today the largest coffee roasting company, by volume, in New Mexico.

New Mexico Piñon Coffee is now on its third owner, but is still family owned and operated. Today, Cindy and Frank Bassett are the owners and two of their sons as well as their daughter-in-law operate the company. Including both the office crew and production staff, they employ about 20 New Mexicans.

All of the company's roasting is done in Albuquerque out of their roasting facility. They use 100% Arabica coffee coming from Peru, Brazil, Mexico and sometimes Honduras. Their roasting process is based on small-batch roasting, which means no more than 100 pounds in each batch. They roast on average 2,500 pounds of coffee beans per day and over 800,000 pounds per year using old-school flame based roasters without any fancy gadgets or mechanisms. Each batch is watched over by their house roaster who continually checks the beans throughout the process to make sure they roast to perfection. To put into perspective, about one coffee tree produces about a pound to a pound-and-a-half per year. For New Mexico Piñon Coffee to reach their demand, they are using beans from over one-million coffee bean trees. 

Today, the company has over 40 different coffee flavors that are tested and approved by a group of professional tasters. They also offer free coffee tasting classes twice a month throughout the year. You can check out their availability on their website. One coffee factoid that I learned while touring their roasting facility is that a light roast of coffee = more caffeine and a more acidic flavor, a darker roast = less caffeine and slightly biter flavor. 

This year in particular has been a very exciting year for the company as they are on their way to roasting over 1 million pounds of coffee. This was also the first year New Mexico Piñon Coffee was the official coffee sponsor of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. In previous years Folgers held this title, but 2015 was the first year that a local company was selected for the position. 

For our grand giveaway we are including one of the New Mexico Piñon Coffee Traditional Gift Sampler sets, as featured in the photograph above. 

Bags of Coffee arrive in the warehouse from Peru, Brazil and Mexico.

You can find New Mexico Piñon Coffee is most New Mexican super markets, on their website or by stopping into their retail store off Jefferson street NE in Albuquerque.

To be eligible to win the #ChileChicaGiveaway - one item from each of the 12 Days of New Mexico Christmas (valued at over $200!) - you will need to do to the following:

1. Repost your favorite of the "12 Days" as they are posted now through December 23rd on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram - feel free to repost older days you have already read as well!

2. Include the hashtag #ChileChicaGiveaway on all your reposts!

3. Follow New Mexico Chiles; History, Legend and Lore on Facebook.

4. Follow The Chile Film on Facebook.

Post everyday for your best chance to win. Each post will count as an additional entry, limit one per day per social media platform. We will announce the winner on Christmas Eve, and remember to have your privacy settings public so we can see your posts! Happy holidays!