Patlanalan Lot One

Patlanalan is one of the most remote communities in Puebla. One of Patlanalan's defining characteristics is that the center of the community holds one of the best-known lagoons in Puebla, the Patlanalan lagoon. The result in the cup speaks for itself: coffee is complex with mellow citrus acidity, and full of florals.

Patlanalan is one of the most remote communities in Puebla. At its center sits the Patlanalan lagoon — one of the best-known bodies of water in the state, and the landmark the whole community is built around.

Getting there is its own journey. From the Veracruz airport it's eight hours by road, then across the border into Puebla. As you approach, the first thing you see is the ring of mountains circling the lagoon, their slopes covered in small farms. The producers live in the lower area near the water, far from the plots they tend higher up — so every cherry still comes down the mountain by mule.

The farms here are small, one to two hectares on average, and worked entirely by family through harvest. Coffee grows under native shade trees like banana and ice cream bean, and shares the land with corn, avocado, and lemon. The varieties are Mundo Novo, Sarchimor, and yellow Caturra.

For years, Patlanalan produced mostly natural coffee — less by choice than by necessity. The region supplies water to the entire state of Veracruz, and its lagoon, rivers, springs, and aquifers are strictly protected. The wastewater that comes with wet processing was prohibited outright.

But the natural process is unforgiving, and few producers had been taught to manage it well, so the results were often low quality. Gradually, producers learned to pick and sell their coffee in cherry, and quality began to climb. Today, like their neighbours in Veracruz, they sell all their coffee in cherry.