Tomorrow Sun Plan | Bolivia Caranavi | Yungas Don Carlos Estate Pearl Round Beans

Bolivia Caranavi | Yungas Don Carlos Estate Pearl Round Bean: What Does It Taste Like?

Our partner in Bolivia is Agricafe, established by Pedro Rodriguez and his children Pedro Pablo and Daniela. Agricafe is a key driver behind the revival of Bolivia's specialty coffee industry and remains almost its most important pillar.

Several well-known roasters in Europe and America—Intelligentsia, Has Bean, Stumptown, Drop Coffee, 49th Parallel, Maruyama—almost always buy beans from Agricafe. Pedro has created several important estates of his own in the Caranavi region, such as Finca Don Carlos and Finca Alastias. Even more exciting, another estate, Finca El Fuerte, has been created in Bolivia's eastern production region, in the high-altitude Santa Cruz area, which has already produced a harvest this year.

Beyond his own estates, Pedro began the "El Sol de Manana" (Tomorrow's Sun) plan, driven by the dream of revitalizing Bolivia's specialty coffee and caring for farmers' livelihoods. The plan invests heavily in coaching member smallholders, providing technical support for breeding, pruning, fertilization, harvesting, and other key practices. It also buys cherries from member smallholders at higher prices, using Agricafe's own processing plants for post-processing, creating a virtuous cycle of sustainable farmer income and quality.

Indigenous people make up about 60% of the total population and are divided into 36 ethnic groups.

Bolivia is one of the five most diverse countries in the world. It is landlocked, surrounded by five countries that influence it deeply, with a population of about 10 million. Indigenous people, about 60% of the total, are divided into 36 ethnic groups; mestizos (of mixed European and indigenous descent) account for 26%, along with Europeans and other groups. The terrain runs from the 6,462-meter Illimani peak to the world's highest navigable alpine lake at 3,812 meters above sea level—Lake Titicaca—and includes tropical rainforest as well. Such varied terrain makes it a paradise for specialty micro-lots. Yet Bolivia's coffee production has declined year by year.

From 1997 to 2014, exports fell year by year to only 1/4. According to Roast Magazine data, its coffee production ranks 38th—even behind the United States, which ranks 35th. Specialty micro-lot Bolivian coffee is therefore very precious and hard to find, a consequence of Bolivia's lagging economic development and infrastructure. Bolivia remains the poorest country in South America. It was blessed with diverse terrain, but poor infrastructure has become a key factor affecting coffee processing, transport, and quality.

Altitude

1600-1650m

Flavor

The dry aroma has notes of lemon peel, roasted almonds, caramel, and floral aromatics. On the sip it reveals citrus, lemon peel, fresh blueberries, and florals, with a clean and elegant flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water temperature: 90 degrees

Grind size: Fuji grinder setting 3.5

Brewing method: water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g of coffee. First pour 25g of water, steam for 25s. Second pour to 120g, then stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway before pouring again, slowly, until you reach 225g of water. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: the three-stage pour clearly defines the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, stopping the pour helps extend the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

During roasting, three elements decide the final flavor and must be balanced: acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. The darker the roast, the more bitter and full-bodied the cup; the lighter the roast, the more acidic and delicate. For a balanced cup, a medium roast is the best place to start. FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Estate suits anyone who dislikes both sourness and bitterness: grown in Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, it is a distinctive local Yellow Bourbon with a quiet, sweet profile, and medium roasting brings out cream-peanut, chocolate, toasted bread, and sugarcane aromas and sweetness, working as pour-over, in a moka pot, or in an espresso machine.

For a sweeter medium roast, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy is known for its fruit flavors; unusually, it combines a honey-processed coffee from Costa Rica with a washed Geisha from Panama, and FrontStreet roasts it medium so it shows both orange-blossom and honey character and a round sweetness, suiting cold brew, pour-over, and espresso alike. Another fine example is FrontStreet 2013 Natural Typica, which carries the authentic Yunnan small-bean character: to bring back its balanced, gentle nature it is roasted medium, holding soft notes of nut, brown sugar, black tea, and dried apricot at once, and it suits pour-over, cold brew, and drip machines at excellent value. Finally, FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is grown from the Typica variety, and Blue Mountain's exceptional geography is essential to its balance; called the "emperor of coffee," it is roasted medium so its acidity, bitterness, sweetness, and body fuse into a powerful, elegant aroma of chocolate, roasted nuts, cream, and caramel on the very first sip.