Lazara Perez’s coffee is a perfect example of why we’ve long centered Guatemalan coffees in our selections: subtle citrus acidity, well balanced with pear and honey sweetness that makes it extremely easy to drink. These coffees are not fruit and floral bombs that exhaust your palate just a few sips in, but are instead deeply nourishing and nuanced cups.

Lazara is a member of the ASDEFLOR Association, located in the township of Chanjón, in the Todos Santos Cuchumatán municipality in the department of Huehuetenango. ASDEFLOR is the Asociación de Desarrollo Flor del Café (Coffee Flower Development Association), and it is a tiny collective of just 30 members, all of whom belong to the Mam Mayan indigenous community. Mam is still the language used, Spanish being a second-language used only when speaking to mestizos. The Association owns a communal wet-mill where most members process their coffee. Fermentations are long and cold, between two and three days, and producers cover the tanks in thick plastic to ensure a homogenous and clean fermentation. At around 1700 masl, parchment is dried partially on raised beds and finished on patios at the wet-mill site.