What is the Taste and Flavor of Bolivia's Linda Washed Long Beans? How to Brew Bolivia Coffee

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

What are the flavors of Bolivia's Linda washed Longberry coffee beans? How should you hand-brew Bolivian washed coffee beans for the best taste?

Bolivia is one of the most difficult growing regions in the world, with transportation and climate being the biggest challenges. This year, through special estate relationships, we have renewed our partnership and strongly recommend this high-altitude organic coffee to friends who love mountain-grown coffee. It features rich flavors including cherry fruitiness, cream, chocolate, and caramel. This year, we sourced directly from Bolivian exporters, who handled the drying process with exceptional care, using African-style drying beds to bring out the best in the coffee. After cupping, the flavors proved remarkably balanced with high sweetness, absolutely satisfying the palates of Bolivia coffee enthusiasts.

Specialty coffee cultivation in Bolivia occurs at altitudes of approximately 1,200 to 2,000 meters, with growing areas concentrated around Caranavi, about a 3-hour drive from the capital La Paz.

Commercial grade coffee is produced in the Santa Cruz region below 1,000 meters altitude. Bolivia's specialty coffee is primarily produced in micro-lots, with average farm sizes of 3 to 5 hectares, typically family-run operations.

Due to rugged terrain and inconvenient transportation, Bolivian coffee had very low visibility in the international market initially. It wasn't until the Cup of Excellence competition was held there in 2004 that people began to gain more recognition for Bolivian coffee.

Because of the micro-lot production model, it's not easy for farmers to sell their coffee directly to importers, which led to the emergence of many cooperatives and producer alliances to help farmers export their coffee.

The Federation of Coffee Exporting Producers of Bolivia (FECAFEB) was established in May 1991 and currently comprises 30 cooperative organizations distributed across regions including Caranavi, North Yungas, South Yungas, Larecaja, and Franz Tamayo in La Paz province, representing approximately 8,500 coffee-producing families. The FECAFEB board consists of 5 members who rotate through democratic elections every two years. The federation's main work includes defending and protecting farmers' interests and rights, providing advice on quality maintenance and organic cultivation techniques, helping farmers market their coffee internationally, establishing processing facilities, and setting production plans. Additionally, they provide farmers with credit and financial services.

Nearly all coffee produced by FECAFEB is grown organically, and they currently export approximately 19,600 kilograms of coffee beans annually.

Bolivia Linda Longberry Washed

Region: Bolinda, Caranavi Province

Farm: La Linda Farm

Washing Mill: Buena Vista Mill

Mill Owner/Farm Owner: Daniella and Pedro Rodriguez

Altitude: 1,680 meters

Variety: Longberry

Processing: Washed

Harvest Time: July-September 2016

Flavor Notes: Pu-erh tea woody sweetness, corn, salty toffee, chocolate, raisins

La Linda Farm can be considered the flagship farm in Pedro Rodriguez's Sol de Mañana program—the first demonstration farm experimenting with different rare varieties. The Longberry from La Linda, like Geisha, originates from Ethiopia, making its way through Indonesia, Cameroon, and Nicaragua in Central America before finally arriving in Bolivia. Longberry is a delicious variety that can compete with Geisha, and like Geisha, it requires high altitude to fully develop its wonderful flavors. The landlocked mountainous regions of Bolivia may be the ideal origin.

The flavor spectrum of Bolivian coffee gets Drop very excited—high sweetness and delicious chocolate flavors combine to create a very special cup. To highlight the deliciousness that Bolivian coffee can create, the Rodriguez family planted quite special varieties: Geisha and Java.

The Rodriguez family owns the Buena Vista Mill, processing cherries from farmers in the Caranavi and Sud Yungas regions before packaging for export. For thirty years, they continuously sought out coffee from small farmers. However, as production continued to decline, their export business faced crisis. If even the Rodriguez family couldn't sustain themselves, Bolivian coffee might even face the threat of disappearance in the future.

To meet this severe challenge, the Rodriguez family decided to start growing their own coffee five years ago.

In 2012, the Rodriguez family began purchasing farmland in Caranavi Province. Caranavi is located 150 kilometers north of Bolivia's largest city, La Paz, with particularly fertile soil and high altitude, long regarded as the center of Bolivian specialty coffee production. Rodriguez aimed to create demonstration farms, using their own farms to demonstrate cultivation practices, educate other coffee farmers in sustainable agriculture, and thereby increase their mill's production. Not only that, they introduced a model that enables sustainable development for coffee farmers: sustainable economy, social understanding, and environmental awareness. They named this cooperation model "Sol de Mañana" (Morning Sun). In five years, Rodriguez now owns 12 farms, with a goal to expand cultivation area to 200 hectares.

Under the Sol de Mañana program, La Linda Farm was the first farm cultivated by Rodriguez, established in 2012, and can be considered the leader of the entire program. The farm area is only 10 hectares, with 8 hectares planted in coffee. The first harvest came in 2015. In addition to Caturra and Typica varieties, they also planted some quite rare varieties, including San Bernardo, SL-28, and the Ethiopian-origin Longberry.

The variety locally called Longberry in Bolivia has the formal name Java. Because the beans are quite long, similar to Geisha in appearance, and in flavor, it's a rare variety that can compete with Geisha.

The variety locally called Longberry in Bolivia gets its name from the long appearance of its beans. Its formal name should be Java. Java is a very interesting variety—from its name, one can see its strong connection to Indonesia. But in fact, Java originated as a coffee tree species in Ethiopia's original forests, collected by local peoples, then transmitted through Yemen to Indonesia, where it was named Java. Originally, everyone generally thought Java was a branch of Typica, but after genetic comparison, it was discovered that Java is actually from the Ethiopian coffee variety Abysinia.

After Indonesia, Java first spread to the nearby Timor island group, then to Cameroon in East Africa, where it was first released for farmer cultivation in 1980. As for its introduction to Central and South America, under the leadership of breeding expert Benoit Bertrand, it was introduced to Costa Rica in 1991 through CIRAD (the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement). The first Central American country to officially recognize the Java variety was Panama in 2016, and its introduction to Bolivia was through Nicaragua.

Longberry, as its name suggests, has long fruits and seeds, with bronze-colored young shoots. The plant is quite tall but has low yield. Due to its outstanding flavor that doesn't lose to Geisha, and stronger resistance to leaf rust and coffee berry disease, it's very suitable for small farmers to grow.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing Methods

Siphon, Pour-over

Grind Size: 3.5-4 (Japan Mini Fuji R440)

KONO dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 88°C, grind 4, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:14-15

30g water for bloom, bloom time 30s

Stages: Pour water to 120ml, pause, then slowly pour to 225ml

That is: 30-120-225

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473