Favorite Coffee Hangs: San Miguel de Allende
Mexico has excellent growing conditions for coffee. Most of its coffee is Arabica, grown in mountainous areas at altitude, where cooler temperatures and slower-growing cherries allow the flavors to develop.
Mexico is a serious coffee country, from the highlands of Chiapas and Oaxaca to the little cafés tucked into the streets of San Miguel. I’ve been happily working my way through them one cup at a time.
Why Mexican coffee is so good
Mexico has excellent growing conditions for coffee. Most of its coffee is Arabica, grown in mountainous areas at altitude, where cooler temperatures and slower-growing cherries allow the flavors to develop.
The big coffee-growing regions include Chiapas, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Puebla, and each produces somewhat different profiles.
What makes Mexican coffee distinctive is often its balance and brightness rather than huge, heavy, smoky flavors.
I’m starting a Favorite Coffee Hangs list here. I’ll keep adding to it as I discover places worth lingering over.
First up:
KI’BOK
This is the kind of coffee shop I love. A cozy neighborhood coffee shop tucked into Centro, with several floors, cozy corners and a terrace upstairs. On a rainy San Miguel morning, it is particularly hard to leave.
Ki’bok, meaning “good aromas” in the Mayan language, opened its doors in San Miguel in 2017. Coffees here are sourced from producers in Chiapas and Veracruz. It is also a good place to open your computer and actually get some work done. Nobody seems to mind if you settle in for a while.
Ki’Bok is known for its Hemingway, a double Cuban-style espresso made with warm milk, cinnamon and brown sugar. The hot espresso is pulled over the brown sugar, melting it into the coffee for a subtly sweet, almost caramel-like finish.
But my favorite is the Oppenheimer: a double ristretto with cacao, warm milk and cinnamon. A ristretto is a shorter, more concentrated espresso, so this one is rich, intense and slightly chocolatey. And the little crunchy top is very addictive.
The food is good too, with a nice range of breakfast and lunch options. I particularly love that you can get bone broth here, which feels especially welcome on a cool or rainy morning.
And if you really love the coffee, you can buy their beans to take home.
LAVANDA
Lavanda is right near the artisan market, making it a great place to stop for breakfast or brunch while you’re exploring the neighborhood. It also has a lovely rooftop terrace on the top floor, which is especially nice when the weather is good.
They take their coffee seriously, with Mexican specialty beans roasted here in San Miguel.
Their lavender coffee is the thing to try. I particularly like it iced. The lavender gives the coffee a delicate floral note that works surprisingly well and makes it especially refreshing on a warm afternoon.
And the lavender theme carries through to some of their sweets, including lavender cookies and lavender chocolate cake.
The food is genuinely good too, so I’d happily come here for a leisurely breakfast or brunch. They also do good coffee to go, which is perfect if you’re heading off to explore.
LAVANDA
Lavanda has been part of the San Miguel coffee scene since 2013, long before specialty coffee became quite the thing it is today. It was started by Víctor Ramírez and Karla Becerra, who wanted to introduce San Miguel to better Mexican coffee and, importantly, to coffee grown by Mexican producers.
What I love about Lavanda is that the coffee story is still at the heart of it. They work directly with small producers around Mexico and roast their beans right here in San Miguel at their own Obraje de Café. So this isn't just a café with a pretty name. There is a real coffee obsession behind it and you can taste the care.
They are known for their lavender coffee.
I know. Lavender in coffee sounds like it could go terribly wrong. Somehow, it doesn't. I particularly like it iced, when the floral note makes the coffee feel light and refreshing rather than overly sweet.
And they have carried the lavender idea into the sweets too, with lavender cookies and lavender chocolate cake.
Add good breakfast and brunch, a rooftop terrace, the artisan market right there and coffee you can grab to go, makes Lavanda a top SM coffee destination.
