Quality comment Red apple, almonds, toffee in a medium round creamy body and lots of brown sugar and toffee notes. Also lots of forest fruits and red riped fruits in there, generally sugary. Medium citric-malic acidity, well integrated.

THE SAN JUAN COOPERATIVE WAS CREATED ON DECEMBER 26, 1974 WITH 25 MEMBERS.
THE COOPERATIVE IS REFOUNDED ON JUNE 24, 1992
SINCE 1994 WE ENTERED EXPORTS WITH CONVENTIONAL PRODUCTION.
IN 1996 WE BEGIN TO HAVE AN ORGANIC CERTIFICATE
SINCE 2000 THE FAIRTRADE CERTIFICATE HAS BEEN ACQUIRED
CURRENTLY IT HAS ORGANIC CERTIFICATION WITH IMOcert and FRAIRTRADE FAIR TRADE.
WE HAVE 41 ASSOCIATED PRODUCERS IN THE COOP. SAN JUAN R.L.

The process

MANUAL HARVESTING OF RIPE FRUITS VIA WET, PULPING, FERMENTING, WASHING AND NATURAL DRYING BY THE SUN ON DRYING TABLES.

Bolivian coffee harvest runs from April (below 1,000 masl) to October (up to 2,000 masl). In 2006 the country exported 85,000 bags of green coffee. The coffee rust hit the region very hard after that and the production dropped to 20,000 in 2017. The increase of the coca production also led to a decrease of the coffee production. Indeed, as soon as the coca production became legal in some areas of Bolivia, many farmers switched coffee production to coca production which is more profitable (5 harvests a year with big profit). Caranavi known as the capital of coffee is located in the lush forest of the Yungas region. This is where the famous Death Road follows the Andes Mountains from the dry Altiplano to the lush green forest of the Amazon jungle. This unique region has two climates and is home to the most fertile soil and consequently where the majority of coffee in Bolivia is produced nowadays. All the coffee has to travel this treacherous road to be processed and exported from La Paz.Every Wednesday in Caranavi is market day and people come in from their small communities to buy basic goods to stock up for the week; all kinds of potatoes, pastas, quinoa, vegetables, toilet paper, dried llama meat. The majority of the population here is native, and vibrant colours and bowler hats complimented this beautiful market.Agricafe is a business owned by the Rodriguez family and has been started in 1986. By then, the family used to rent wet mills in Caranavi region, buying cherries from 2,000 producers and in 2001 they built their actual wet mill, called Buena Vista, in Caranavi. They, very quickly, built a dry mill in la Paz and then started exporting operations. In 2013, a few years after the national drop of production, they decided to buy land and start farming as well. They now have 8 farms in Caranavi region (60 ha) and 5 farms in Samaipata region (60 ha). Up to 300 people are working for the company at the peak season. They hire agronomists from different countries as consultants every year.The total farm runs on 4 hectares fully planted with coffee trees of 4 varieties: Red and Yellow Caturra and Red and Yellow Catuai under native tree shade system: citrus, papaya and avocado. This farm has been rehabilitated in 2015 with the first seedlings and the first beans were harvested in 2017The red and yellow caturras are grown separately from the other varieties, to experiment with the taste of an exclusive red or yellow cup. The cherries are harvested and taken to Buena Vista Mill the same day where they are honey processed. After some mechanical pulping that removes part of the pulp, the beans are directly moved to raised beds for 3-4 days before being dried in mechanical dryers: big square boxes with hot air flow at the bottom. When on sunbeds, coffee is moved every 30 min in the morning and every hour in the afternoon. When on the boxes, coffee is moved every hour. The temperature in the mechanical dryers never goes over 40 degrees Celsius and MC and T are controlled at all time with MC/T meters. When they reached 12% MC and after a few hours of resting, all coffee is bagged with Ecotact and Jute/plastic bags and sent to the dry mill in La Paz with sample bags on the side. The lots sit there in parchment until they are prepared for export.After milling, cupping and after making sure the moisture content is around 11%, the coffee is bagged in Ecotact and jute bags before being exported through Arica port in Chile.

El Arcángel was planted in 2015 and had its first harvest in 2017. One of the things that’s unique about the farm is that the red and yellow caturras were grown separately from the other varieties so that the distinctive qualities of each are preserved and highlighted in each lot. The farm gets its name from an unusually large and majestic tree that sits at the highest point of the farm appearing to observe the land from on high, resembling the protector archangel. The coffee was planted here in such a way that leads to harmonious growth and harvesting practices. It is felt to be a place of great peace; an oasis that exudes beauty and tranquillity as if watched over by a divine presence.

Bolivia general info:

Bolivia has an interesting coffee history and although it was exporting close to 85,000 bags in the early 2000s, Bolivian coffees almost disappeared at the end of the last decade. In 2018, only 23,300 bags were exported. A tiny portion of these were sold as Specialty grade.

The reasons for this are multiple but the main one was the coffee rust that hit the coffee regions very hard and decimated many farms. After that big loss, and after the decision of the government to allow the production of coca in some districts of Bolivia, many producers decided to start growing coca leaves (the base ingredient in the preparation of cocaine) instead of coffee. Coca is a lot more profitable than coffee per hectare and you can harvest it about 5 times a year which gives income to the producers and their family throughout the year.

A lot of the coffee in the country has been traditionally grown under organic conditions. However, the lack of knowledge and training led to farms that look more like forests, with coffee trees that carry very few leaves and even less cherries. Many of the producers think that organic farming means not to do anything in your parcel than harvesting. That also contributed to the big drop in production.

It’s therefore very difficult to find Specialty coffees from Bolivia these days.

Bolivian coffee harvest runs from April (below 1,000 masl) to October (up to 2,000 masl).

Caranavi known as the capital of coffee is located in the lush forest of the Yungas region. This is where the famous Death Road follows the Andes Mountains from the dry Altiplano to the lush green forest of the Amazon jungle. All the exportable products from the region have to travel this treacherous road to be processed and exported from La Paz. In the 1950s, the government gave parcels of 10 hectares of tropical land to people and as a consequence, many people moved to Caranavi region and became farmers. This unique region has two climates and is home to the most fertile soil and consequently where the majority of coffee in Bolivia is produced nowadays. However, producers only plant 2 to 4 hectares of their plots with coffee trees, the rest remaining wild forest.

Every Wednesday in Caranavi is market day and people come in from their small communities to buy basic goods to stock up for the week; it is also the main place to sell recently harvested coffee. This coffee is commercial grade and is sold as a ‘honey’: pulped but not dry to one first middleman. The traditional supply chain structure in Bolivian includes many middlemen until the coffee gets exported and selling their coffee to the Wednesday market in Caranavi is most of the time the only option for producers to sell their commercial crop.

The ICE arabica price does not have much impact on the national trade as Bolivia isolated itself from the international market. The Caranavi market level is the one dictating prices in the whole region if not in the whole country.