Puebla
A Mexican coffee state most people don't know grows coffee, on the wet eastern slope of the Sierra Madre Oriental.
- Country
- Mexico
- Typical elevation
- 1,200 to 1,800 masl
- Harvest
- December to March
Mexico is a top-ten coffee producer and almost nobody outside the trade can name a Mexican region. Chiapas gets what recognition there is. Puebla gets close to none, despite being one of the country's larger producing states.
The coffee grows on the eastern flank of the Sierra Madre Oriental, where moist air coming off the Gulf hits the mountains and drops its rain. Quimixtlán and the municipalities around it sit high on that slope, steep ground farmed in very small plots.
The structure here is cooperative and community-based out of necessity. Holdings of one to three hectares are standard, so cherry is pooled and milled collectively, and the lot that reaches an importer is a community lot rather than a single farm. That isn't a compromise on quality, it's just a different unit, and it's the only way coffee at this scale leaves the country with its origin attached.
Harvest runs through the northern winter, which puts Mexican coffee on the calendar at a useful moment for a roaster.
The coffee grows on the eastern flank of the Sierra Madre Oriental, where moist air coming off the Gulf hits the mountains and drops its rain. Quimixtlán and the municipalities around it sit high on that slope, steep ground farmed in very small plots.
The structure here is cooperative and community-based out of necessity. Holdings of one to three hectares are standard, so cherry is pooled and milled collectively, and the lot that reaches an importer is a community lot rather than a single farm. That isn't a compromise on quality, it's just a different unit, and it's the only way coffee at this scale leaves the country with its origin attached.
Harvest runs through the northern winter, which puts Mexican coffee on the calendar at a useful moment for a roaster.
