Bolivian Coffee Estate Coffee Beans - Bolivian Waliki Java Coffee Beans Flavor Characteristics and Story

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Latin American coffee regions offer a wide variety of single-origin coffees and are very active in the specialty coffee market, such as representative countries like Brazil, Costa Rica, and Colombia. However, today's article from FrontStreet Coffee focuses on a very niche coffee-producing country - Bolivia. FrontStreet Coffee believes this region has great potential, so this article will explore the characteristics and stories related to Bolivia's coffee-growing regions.

Bolivia Coffee History

According to FrontStreet Coffee, Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America, bordering Brazil and Colombia. However, it is not as developed as its neighboring countries and remains one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Besides lacking ports, the local government's high corruption is also a reason for the country's extreme poverty. However, Bolivia's capital La Paz has an altitude exceeding 3,600 meters, making it the highest capital city in the world, thus it can be said to be very suitable for growing Arabica coffee beans.

The origins of Bolivian coffee can be traced back to 1880, when all production was basically related to owners of some large farms north of La Paz. In 1991, the government promoted a plan for indigenous people to engage in Bolivian coffee cultivation, but quality was not emphasized.

This was because at that time, growing coca plants was legal in Bolivia, and under government encouragement, the profit from coca leaves was four times that of coffee, and much easier than growing coffee. This caused many farmers to abandon coffee and even completely give up their farms. Of course, it was against this background that the land in Bolivia's coffee regions suffered severe damage. This is because growing coca requires the use of large amounts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, which cause great damage to the soil. In other words, after growing coca for several years, the soil becomes barren and can no longer grow any crops.

However, according to FrontStreet Coffee, as early as 2000, the United States strongly supported Bolivia's agriculture, but due to the Bolivian government's later support for coca cultivation, relations with the United States deteriorated, leading to the suspension of the plan. It wasn't until after the end of Bolivia's anti-drug war that many coffee cultivation plans began to restart, and the United States began to assist Bolivian coffee farmers again. For example, the Cup of Excellence (COE) cupping competition was held with the support of USAID.

But the good times didn't last long. After 2009, Bolivia's COE competition was canceled because the Bolivian national government was very anti-American and did not want the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to fund any more development programs in Bolivia, and there were no other sources of funding for the COE program.

Furthermore, in 2013, leaf rust arrived, and in just that year, Bolivia lost 50% of its coffee production. Combined with the previous factors of the Bolivian government's coca leaf policy and leaf rust, Bolivia's coffee production has decreased by 70% in the past decade, reducing it to a minor coffee-producing country.

This is one of the reasons why Bolivian coffee beans are not as famous as those from neighboring countries. However, Bolivia's coffee regions have gradually begun to focus on the development of the specialty coffee industry. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee believes that Bolivian coffee beans still have great potential, which is why we have introduced Bolivian Java coffee beans.

Bolivia Coffee Regions

According to FrontStreet Coffee, currently the most famous region in Bolivia is La Paz, which includes sub-regions such as Caranavi, Yungas, and Inquisivi.

Yungas Province

This province is located in the Caranavi province, northeast of La Paz city. With altitudes ranging from 800-1800m, it features vast forests extending from the eastern slopes of the Andes and fertile land. Its rainy, humid, and warm climate makes it a favorable area for coffee production and cultivation. At the same time, this region is famous for the "Death Road" Yungas Road, also known as "the world's most dangerous road." According to FrontStreet Coffee, currently 95% of Bolivia's coffee is produced here.

Bolivia Coffee Bean Varieties

According to FrontStreet Coffee, currently the main varieties grown in Bolivia are Typica, Caturra, Catuai, and Catimor. The harvest season is from July to November. However, among the several Bolivian coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee has obtained, through cupping comparisons, we finally decided to launch a Java coffee bean from the Waliki Estate. This Java coffee bean, through cupping, exhibits its grape-like soft fruit acidity, raisin fermentation notes, and chocolate nut aftertaste, which can represent the characteristic flavors of the Bolivia region. This is also why FrontStreet Coffee chose to launch this coffee bean.

Java Variety Coffee Beans

Java coffee beans are called "long bean varieties" in Bolivia, named for their long bean appearance. Their formal name should be Java. Java is a very interesting coffee variety. From the name alone, you can see a strong connection with Indonesia's Java island. However, in fact, Java originated from coffee tree species in the original forests of Ethiopia, collected by local ethnic groups, then transmitted through Yemen to Indonesia, where it was named Java. Originally, it was generally believed that Java was a variant of Typica, but after genetic comparison, it was found that Java is actually the Ethiopian coffee variety Abysinia.

After Indonesia, the Java variety first spread to nearby Timor island groups, then to Cameroon in East Africa, where it was first released for farmers to grow in 1980. As for its spread to Central and South America, it was under the leadership of breeding expert Benoit Bertrand that it was introduced to Costa Rica in 1991 through CIRAD. However, the first Latin American country to officially recognize the Java variety was Panama.

Java's fruits and seeds are very long, the young shoots are bronze-colored, and the plant is quite tall but has low yield. It has stronger resistance to leaf rust and coffee berry disease, making it very suitable for small farmers to grow. Furthermore, through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that this Java coffee bean has outstanding flavors that are no less impressive than Geisha. This is also one of the reasons why FrontStreet Coffee decided to introduce this coffee bean.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the flavor characteristics and processing method of this Bolivian Java coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee Bolivia Waliki Estate Java Coffee Beans

Region: La Paz

Altitude: 1600 meters

Variety: Java

Processing: Cocoa Natural Processing

Flavor: Fermentation notes, grape, nuts, light floral notes, honey, cream

Waliki Estate

It's worth mentioning that as mentioned earlier, Bolivia's early neglect of coffee cultivation led to low quantities, but FrontStreet Coffee specifically selected this Java coffee bean from Waliki Estate, partly because of the uniqueness of the coffee bean variety, and partly because FrontStreet Coffee saw the estate's professionalism and attention to quality.

The name Waliki Estate comes from a local greeting meaning "How is everything?" The response is "All good" or "Hakuna Matata."

Waliki Estate is located in the Bolivia Linda colony, about 10 kilometers outside the town of Caranavi in La Paz, Bolivia, nestled in dense, steep valleys. The estate has about 3.62 hectares of land at an altitude of 1600 meters. This high altitude helps ensure the slow maturation of coffee cherries. This slow maturation process leads to increased sugar concentration in the coffee cherries, thereby helping the coffee become sweeter. According to FrontStreet Coffee, the estate is owned by the Rodriguez family. The Rodriguez family owns a family business called Agricafe, which produces coffee from its own estates and sources quality small batch crops from small producers in the Yungas region.

Waliki Estate Coffee Processing Method

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Waliki Estate places great importance on coffee tree cultivation. Therefore, during the coffee cherry harvest season, the estate hires pickers from the Bolivia Linda community who carefully select coffee cherries during picking. These pickers are trained to select only ripe coffee cherries, and the estate conducts multiple rounds of coffee cherry picking during the harvest season to ensure that coffee cherries are picked at optimal maturity.

The estate also uses crates, which ensure that coffee is not damaged during transportation and also allow air circulation around the coffee cherries, thus preventing unnecessary early fermentation. After selection and weighing, the coffee cherries are carefully washed and placed on raised African drying beds to dry, then turned every hour. After about a week, the coffee cherries are placed in cocoa dryers. Therefore, this processing method is named Cocoa Natural Processing.

Cocoa Natural Processing Flow

It is precisely because the Rodriguez family has been continuously innovating and trying different processing techniques, discovering that cocoa dryers can slowly and continuously dry coffee beans at low temperatures, thereby reducing the impact of weather conditions. The coffee beans are placed in large steel barrels at temperatures not exceeding 40 degrees Celsius for about 35 hours, turned every 30 minutes. After drying, the coffee beans are transported to La Paz for resting, then dehulled at Agricafe's dry mill La Luna. In this mill, careful mechanical dehulling and sorting are performed, in addition to manual sorting under ultraviolet and natural light.

It is precisely because of this that the quality of this Bolivian Java coffee bean is so excellent. The above is the information about Bolivian coffee beans compiled by FrontStreet Coffee. FrontStreet Coffee conducts extensive roasting and brewing tests before launching any new coffee bean to ensure that we can present the best side of the coffee's flavor. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the roasting and brewing parameters for this Bolivian Java coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Share

Bolivia Java: To highlight the sweetness of natural processing and cocoa aroma, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster extends the development period to create sweet and delicious flavors. Taking Yangjia 800N as an example, using 500g of green beans.

Preheat to 170°C, heat at 120, damper open to 3; Return to temperature point at 1'36", when the temperature reaches 111°C, open the damper to 4, adjust heat to 140; When the temperature reaches 151.1°C, the bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. At 7'56", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, toast smell clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack, damper adjusted to 5. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 10'18", first crack begins. After first crack, develop for 1'00", unload at 190°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

[Bolivia Java] Dry aroma has hazelnut fragrance. On entry, first comes the sweetness of cream, hazelnut, and almond, as well as the sweet and sour tones of citrus and tropical fruits, with fermented wine aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Share

Dripper: HARIO V60

Water Temperature: 90 degrees

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Fine sugar size

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour water in a small circular motion to 125g for segmentation, when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time is 2'00".

Bolivia Java Coffee Flavor Description: On entry, there are distinct sweet and sour notes of citrus, lime, and hawthorn, with some fruit chocolate and vanilla cream aftertaste. When the temperature drops, there's the sour tone of sweet orange. When cool, there's a light maple sweetness and the aftertaste of jasmine tea and rose tea, with persistent sucrose aftertaste.

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