San Francisco Ozolotepec is a remote coffee-growing community in Oaxaca's Sierra Sur, located about eight hours by road from Oaxaca City. The name "Ozolotepec" comes from Aztec language and means "Hill of the Tiger." The community sits within a canyon facing Oaxaca's Pacific coast, where a humid tropical climate and seasonal storms from the Pacific strongly influence daily life and coffee production. This community lot is made up of coffee from five neighboring smallholder producers, each farming between 1.5 and 2 hectares. The coffees are primarily Typica, Caturra, and Oro Azteca. After harvest, the coffee is fermented for 12–24 hours in traditional fermentation tanks and bags before being dried on patios built above the producers' homes, typically for around five days. The lot is organized by Francisco Cortez, a former schoolteacher with extensive knowledge of the local coffee-growing region. Purchases from this community have been intermittent, as communication can be difficult due to the area's remoteness and limited mobile phone coverage.
Braden and Mary Walter launched Redhawk Coffee Roasters in Pittsburgh in 2016, starting with a mobile coffee operation before quickly establishing a permanent home. Braden brings nearly two decades of coffee industry experience to the roastery, where all production runs through a 15 kilogram Giesen roaster at their dedicated roasting facility. The approach is small batch and detail oriented, with an emphasis on sourcing coffees that reward careful roasting. What started small has grown steadily, driven by the same hands on commitment to quality that defined day one.
