Starbucks Bolivia Coffee Beans Buena Vista Estate Introduction and Flavor Brewing Parameters

Buenavista

Compared with its neighboring coffee-producing countries, Bolivia's coffee output is very small. Even so, the beans from Bolivia's Buenavista Estate are quite distinctive next to other South American flavors. It is an elegant and noble coffee worth tasting.

The Buenavista Estate is located in the Caranavi province of Bolivia. The farm owner, Pedro Rodriguez, and his son run five coffee farms, the Buenavista washed processing plant in Caranavi, and an export company representing hundreds of small producers throughout Bolivia's Caranavi region.

The growing region sits at high altitude, with some areas reaching up to 2000 meters. The factory, known as "Buena Vista," is very selective about the cherries it processes. The coffee is depulped and mechanically washed, and no water is used during the fermentation process, thereby conserving as much water as possible.

Above the valley, Pedro Rodriguez has built a cupping room that overlooks Caranavi - a beautiful place for tasting coffee.

Coffee Details

Region: Latin America, Bolivia, Caranavi

Processing Method: Fully washed

Altitude: 1500m - 1800m

Coffee Variety: Geisha

Acidity: Medium

Body: Medium

Description: Delicate jasmine and orange flower notes complement each other, with a long-lasting aftertaste.

The design of Starbucks' Bolivia Buenavista coffee bean card is inspired by the coffee trees of this farm being arranged in rows, as if in a vineyard or a farmer's cornfield. This artistic interpretation shows in the card's design, where the arrangement symbolizes coffee growth, with rakes, water, and the final coffee flowers all designed in the colors of the Bolivian flag.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends brewing with 89-90°C water, using a small Fuji grind setting of 3.5. It delivers rich jasmine and orange flower notes, milk-chocolate smoothness, and a persistent aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Because this Buenavista Estate coffee is a Geisha, its delicate jasmine and orange flower notes call for a Geisha that shares that same perfumed, tea-like elegance. FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Boquete Geisha is the ideal place to start: it comes from Panama's most representative specialty region, with authentic varietal genetics and a washed process, delivering the classic orange-blossom honey character along with an oolong-tea texture and a fine, layered fruit sweetness. For a higher-grade, estate-level experience, FrontStreet Coffee's Esmeralda Green Label Geisha is a blend drawn from several plots and expresses the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha profile at a more accessible price. Both are wonderfully clean and floral in the cup.

Geisha is a medium-light, floral, fruit-forward varietal with a hard bean density that can sink and clog the dripper, so FrontStreet Coffee grinds it slightly coarser than usual - about 78% passing a Chinese-standard No. 20 sieve, roughly fine table-sugar size - and brews at 91°C. Use 15g of coffee with a small Hario V60 and a 1:16 ratio, then brew in three stages: bloom 30g for 30 seconds, pour to about 125g in small circles, wait for the bed to drop halfway, and finish to about 225g, for a total extraction of roughly 2:10-2:20.