At Chiquitito, A Tiny Cafe Makes It Big In Mexico City

It begins in London, where Jeremy Clouser and Cecilia Morales were working toward their master’s degrees. In a city known for its amazing coffee culture, the couple felt inspired to bring some of the British capital back to their home in Mexico City. They wanted to open a cafe, and so, in 2008, Clouser took another educational plunge and enrolled at Portland’s American Barista School.

Then, in 2011, a small space opened up in Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood. Or rather, a tiny space opened up in Condesa, and Clouser and Morales found themselves repeating the Spanish Chiquitito, over and over and over. And so their first cafe was named “tiny,” and they filled it with a La Marzocco Linea PB and beans from Caffè Pecora, which owns and operates a farm in Veracruz and a roastery in Mexico City.

Clouser and Morales would go on to open a second cafe in Cuauhtémoc after their first, and now are beginning to iron the kinks out of their third, in Prado Norte, a beautiful financial district near a residential area called Las Lomas. The cafe is equipped with a La Marzocco Strada and, in addition to sourcing beans from Pécora, offers coffee from Café con Jiribilla, the roasting arm of Avellaneda.

Clouser and Morales’ partnership with Pécora persists today in large part because of their shared vision with Carlos Avendaño, the company’s head farmer and roaster, whose ethic is one that prioritizes traceability. The three have a strong connection and believe that the keys to transparency are shortening the production chain and collecting quick feedback. As Chiquitito grows, Café Pécora does as well, but the transparency of their supply chain remains unchanged.

While Chiquitito is the first specialty cafe in Prado Norte, it and its historic name have so far been well received. Slightly larger than the previous locations, this newest cafe is already populated by locals and those working in the area—it represents an evolution of a tiny model that’s already proven to be a success.

Ximena Rubio is a coffee professional based in Mexico City. Read more Ximena Rubio on Sprudge. 

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