Mayan Tzeltal Indigenous Community Coffee

High in the misty highlands of Chiapas, the Tzeltal people of Tenejapa have farmed these mountainsides for generations, alongside the forest that surrounds them. Here, coffee isn't just grown. It's woven into the land, the culture, and the daily lives of the families who tend it.

The Tzeltal work with the land rather than against it — an inherited way of farming, shaped over generations, that sustains not only coffee but the soil, the pollinators, and the long-term vitality of the land. Smallholder farms — often under two hectares — are carved into steep mountain terrain, where coffee grows in the company of fruit trees, corn, and beans, sheltered by the native forest canopy above. The land is tended without synthetic inputs — compost from fallen leaves, pest control from chilli and lime, knowledge from ancestral practice.

Each lot is processed by the families who grew it — picked by hand, depulped on the farm, then fermented for twelve to seventeen hours before being washed in water channels. The coffee is then laid out to dry on patios beside their homes for twelve to fourteen days, under the open sky. Every step is done by hand, with no shortcuts.

The tools are simple. The knowledge is not. Every decision is guided by touch, smell, and wisdom passed down through generations.

In the cup — hazelnut, brown sugar, vanilla, and a bright lift of lemon.