May 05, 2026· Last updated May 22, 2026

Cinco de Mayo: Mexican Coffee Culture, Our Chiapas Origin, and a CBD Coffee Horchata Latte Recipe

Cinco de Mayo is often misunderstood north of the border as Mexican Independence Day, but the holiday actually commemorates the unlikely Mexican victory at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. For us at Buddha Beans, it's a chance to celebrate something we think about every single day: Mexican coffee culture, the farmers of Chiapas, and the way tradition can shape a great cup of CBD coffee. Below, we'll dig into the history, walk through our organic Chiapas origin, and share a recipe for a CBD coffee horchata latte that bridges old and new.

The Roots of Mexican Coffee Culture

Coffee arrived in Mexico in the late 1700s, brought from Cuba and the Antilles into the highlands of Veracruz. By the mid-19th century, plantations had spread south into Oaxaca and Chiapas, where altitude, volcanic soil, and reliable rainfall created some of the most hospitable growing conditions in the Americas. Today, Mexico is one of the world's largest producers of certified organic coffee, with a deeply rooted tradition of smallholder cooperatives, many of them indigenous Tzeltal, Tzotzil, and Mam communities who have farmed the same hillsides for generations.

Mexican coffee culture is not the espresso-forward, third-wave aesthetic of European cafés. It's domestic, generational, and tied to the rhythm of daily life. Café de olla, coffee simmered in a clay pot with cinnamon and piloncillo (unrefined cane sugar), is the iconic preparation, served at breakfast, after dinner, and during the cool mountain evenings when the harvest crews come in from the fields.

Why Chiapas Produces Exceptional Specialty Coffee

Chiapas sits at the southern edge of Mexico, bordering Guatemala. Its Sierra Madre highlands rise above 1,200 meters, and the coffee belt stretches across regions like the Soconusco and the Sierra Mariscal. The combination of high elevation, shade-grown canopies, and slow cherry maturation produces beans with notable density, mild acidity, and an unmistakable cocoa-forward sweetness.

Our organic Chiapas single origin is sourced from cooperative farms practicing traditional shade-grown agroforestry. The cherries are washed-process, fully sun-dried on raised beds, and the resulting cup is what we'd call a textbook low acid coffee, chocolate, caramel, a soft nuttiness, and a finish that doesn't bite. It's the bean we recommend most often to people with sensitive stomachs, and it's a cornerstone of our 3-origin sampler flight for anyone wanting to explore origin character without committing to a full bag.

The Processing Story

Most Chiapas specialty coffee is prepared via the washed process, where the fruit pulp is removed before fermentation and the seeds are dried clean. Compared to natural process or anaerobic fermentation, washed processing produces a clearer, more transparent cup, you taste the bean and the terroir, not the fruit skin. If you're curious about how processing shapes flavor, our breakdown of washed, natural, and honey process methods walks through the full spectrum.

How We Build a Chiapas CBD Coffee

The bean itself does most of the work. Our job is to roast it gently, medium, never dark enough to obliterate origin character, and to infuse the broad spectrum CBD without disrupting the cup. We use winterized CO2 extraction on USDA-certified organic, USA-grown hemp, then bind the extract to the green or roasted beans depending on the lot. Every bag is third-party lab tested for cannabinoid content and contaminants, and every product is 0% THC.

The Chiapas origin gets a standard 300mg CBD per 12-ounce bag, which works out to roughly 12-15mg per cup depending on your brew ratio. That's a moderate, daily-driver dose, enough that some users report a calmer, more sustained energy without the edge of straight coffee (Iffland 2017). If you're newer to hemp-infused coffee, our CBD coffee dosage guide goes into how to titrate. For anyone who wants more, we make a higher-strength Black Label 600mg CBD coffee, though we'd start with the 300mg first.

Recipe: CBD Coffee Horchata Latte

Horchata in Mexico is traditionally made from soaked rice, cinnamon, and sugar, a cooling, creamy drink served alongside spicy food. Combining it with a freshly brewed Chiapas pour-over creates a layered iced latte that leans into the chocolate-cinnamon backbone of café de olla while staying smooth and crushable. This is functional coffee at its most enjoyable: low acid, mellow, and made for warm afternoons.

For the Horchata Base (makes ~4 servings)

1 cup long-grain white rice, rinsed
2 cinnamon sticks (Mexican canela if you can find it)
4 cups warm water for soaking
2 cups cold water for blending
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (or maple syrup for a vegan version)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

For Each Latte

6 oz double-strength brewed Chiapas CBD coffee, cooled
4 oz horchata base
Ice
Ground cinnamon for dusting

Method

Soak rice and cinnamon sticks in 4 cups warm water for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight in the fridge.
Transfer the soaked rice and cinnamon (along with the soaking water) to a blender. Add the 2 cups cold water and blend on high for 60-90 seconds until the rice is fully pulverized.
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth into a pitcher. Press to extract every drop.
Whisk in the condensed milk, vanilla, and salt. Chill thoroughly.
Brew the Chiapas coffee at double strength (we like a 1:12 ratio in a Hario V60), let it cool, or chill it. You can also use cold brew here, our cold brew blend works beautifully if you want to skip the hot-brew-and-cool step.
Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour 4 oz horchata base, then float 6 oz coffee on top. Stir gently and dust with cinnamon.

The cocoa-caramel base of the Chiapas plays directly into the cinnamon and vanilla of the horchata; nothing fights, nothing dominates. If you want more brightness, swap in our Ethiopia Kochere, its citrus and floral acidity cuts through the cream in a really compelling way, though it's worth noting it's the one origin in our lineup that isn't naturally low acid.

Drinking Mindfully on Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo gets caricatured in the U.S. as an excuse to over-indulge. We'd rather use it as a reminder of what coffee actually represents: a chain of human work that runs from a cooperative farmer in the Sierra Mariscal to your kitchen counter. Specialty coffee, when it's done right, pays farmers more, protects shade canopy, and keeps origin traditions alive. Adding broad spectrum CBD doesn't change that math, it's just another tool for the people who want a calmer, more focused way to drink coffee in the morning. If you're working CBD into a daily ritual, our notes on building a CBD coffee morning routine may be useful.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Mexican Chiapas CBD coffee taste like?

Chiapas single origin from the Sierra Madre highlands tastes predominantly of milk chocolate, caramel, and toasted nuts, with a soft, low-acid finish. Adding broad spectrum CBD via winterized CO2 extraction doesn't alter the cup profile, you still get the full origin character of a washed-process Mexican specialty coffee, just with roughly 12-15mg of cannabidiol per cup.

Is Cinco de Mayo Mexican Independence Day?

No. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Mexican Independence Day is celebrated on September 16 and marks the start of the war for independence from Spain in 1810. Cinco de Mayo is a relatively minor holiday in most of Mexico outside Puebla itself.

Can I make horchata latte with decaf CBD coffee?

Yes, and it's a great option for an evening drink. Our Swiss Water decaf CBD coffee brews into a clean, sweet base that pairs naturally with the cinnamon and rice notes of horchata. Decaf retains the same 300mg of broad spectrum CBD per bag, so you get the calming profile without caffeine interfering with sleep.

Is CBD coffee considered low acid?

Most of our origins, including Mexico Chiapas, Colombia, Burundi, and Vietnam, are naturally low acid coffees suitable for sensitive stomachs. The exception is our Ethiopia Kochere washed, which has characteristic bright citrus acidity by design. CBD itself does not change a coffee's pH, the acid level is determined by origin, processing, and roast.

How much CBD is in one horchata latte?

Using 6 ounces of double-strength Chiapas coffee made from a 300mg-per-bag formulation, you'll get approximately 18-25mg of broad spectrum CBD per latte, depending on your exact brew ratio. That falls squarely in the moderate daily range some users report finding most useful for sustained calm-energy without sedation.