What are the characteristics and stories of Bolivian coffee beans? How does Bolivian coffee taste?

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Central and South American coffee has always been renowned for its high quality. As a South American coffee-producing country, Bolivia has received limited attention because its cultivation altitude is lower than that of other South American growing countries. However, FrontStreet Coffee does not believe that Bolivian coffee is of inferior quality due to "lower altitude," because the country possesses a beautiful natural environment and excellent natural resources as capital, making it a "paradise" for coffee cultivation. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will take everyone to understand Bolivian coffee.

Bolivian Geography

Bolivia is located in the central part of South America, bordering Brazil, a major coffee-producing country, and Peru, a mysterious coffee nation to the north. Bolivia is known as the country of high mountains, with its capital La Paz at an altitude of 3,660 meters. Even Arabica, which thrives at high altitudes, cannot be cultivated in this cold highland. However, the Yungas region in northeastern La Paz borders the basin, with slightly lower altitude and fertile land, making it very suitable for coffee cultivation. Therefore, Bolivia is a country where coffee is grown at "lower altitudes."

Bolivia's Coffee Cultivation History

Cultivation can be described as having a long history, dating back to 1880, when production was basically operated in the mode of large farms. During the subsequent period from 1932 to 1983, Bolivia faced internal and external troubles, with political turmoil that caused the coffee cultivation industry to stagnate or even regress. In 1991, the stabilized Bolivian government encouraged indigenous people to join coffee cultivation plans to revitalize the national economy, but coffee quality was not emphasized at that time. Due to poor national infrastructure, transportation difficulties limited the development of the Victoria coffee industry.

Bolivian Coffee Growing Regions

The main coffee-growing region in Bolivia is the Yungas area. The infrastructure here is relatively backward, lacking large-scale washing processing plants. When coffee ripens, farmers must harvest the ripe fruits and immediately transport them to La Paz, which is higher than this region, for processing. The road from Yungas to La Paz is rugged and known as the "Death Road." During transportation, coffee fruits are prone to fermentation and rotting, producing unpleasant flavors such as pungent smells.

Bolivian Growing Region Flavors

Through cupping Bolivian coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee has found that coffee produced in high-altitude areas usually carries deep and full sweetness, soft citrus acidity, and layered flavors of black fruits and berries. In contrast, coffee produced at relatively lower altitudes shows a balanced taste, excellent chocolate sweetness, soft acidity, and flavors of malt and dried fruit.

The Symbol of Bolivia's Specialty Coffee Movement

Before the 21st century, Bolivian coffee had the right time and place, but was only missing the right people. Between 2000-2004, the United States Agency for International Development, on one hand aiming to curb drugs and on the other recognizing Bolivia's coffee development potential, invested in establishing a large-scale washing processing plant and related supporting facilities in the Yungas region. This ended the "Death Road" that had lasted for over 100 years. Panamanian coffee experts also came to assist Bolivia's coffee industry. They believed that only developing high-quality specialty coffee could lead coffee farmers to the path of prosperity. Therefore, the "Central Coffee Producers Association" was established in Caranavi, Yungas region, with the aim of improving coffee quality.

In 2004, Bolivia held its first Cup of Excellence (COE) competition, with a total of 13 specialty beans scoring above 84 points, among which the champion bean scored as high as 90.44 points, marking the first international recognition of Bolivian coffee. At the 2017 World Barista Championship (WBC), Japanese competitor Miki Suzuki used Geisha from Bolivia and, with her superb skills and the profound flavors of Bolivian coffee, won the world runner-up position.

Tomorrow's Sun Program

This is a comprehensive plan to improve Bolivian coffee, requiring significant investment of money and effort to guide small farmers, including technical support, breeding, pruning, harvesting, and other important technologies. Additionally, it purchases coffee from small farmers at high prices, creating a virtuous cycle where farmers' income and quality enter sustainable operation. The Rodriguez family visits all members of the Tomorrow's Sun Program project every month, providing them with personalized technical assistance and agricultural advice, where even the simplest suggestions can be very helpful.

As the production capacity of coffee farmers continues to improve, the Rodriguez family emphasizes to them that they should continue to focus on quality rather than quantity. They are also teaching coffee farmers to take good care of what they have and make full use of it to maximize production. The Rodriguez family also holds seminars with top agronomists throughout the year. These seminars allow coffee farmers to meet each other, share their experiences, and discuss solutions to problems they encounter.

Bolivian Coffee Cultivation Varieties

Bolivia mainly cultivates Arabica, primarily Typica, Caturra, and Catuai. In addition, varieties such as Geisha, SL-28, and Java are also grown. Organic cultivation methods are adopted nationwide, resulting in higher coffee quality.

The variety locally known in Bolivia as "long-shaped bean" gets its name from its elongated bean appearance. Its formal name should be Java. Java is a very interesting variety. From its name, one can see a strong connection to Indonesia, but in fact, Java originally grew in the original forests of Ethiopia. It was collected by local ethnic groups and then transmitted to Indonesia through Yemen, where it was named Java. Previously, it was generally believed that Java was a variant of Typica, but after genetic comparison, it was discovered that Java is actually the Ethiopian coffee variety Abysinia.

After being introduced to Indonesia, the Java variety first spread to the nearby Timor island group, and 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 Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement). The first Central American country to officially recognize the Java variety was Panama. The fruit and seeds of Java are very long, the young shoots are bronze-colored, and the plant is quite tall but has low yield. Due to its outstanding flavor, which rivals Geisha, and stronger resistance to leaf rust and coffee berry disease, it is very suitable for cultivation by small farmers.

FrontStreet Coffee — Bolivia Waliki Estate Cocoa Natural Java

Coffee Region: La Paz, Waliki Estate

Cultivation Altitude: 1,600 meters

Coffee Variety: Java

Processing Method: Cocoa Natural Processing

Cocoa Natural Processing

During the harvest season, the estate hires pickers from the Bolinda community to carefully select coffee fruits during the picking period. These pickers are trained to select only ripe coffee fruits, and the estate conducts multiple rounds of coffee fruit picking during the harvest season to ensure that coffee fruits are picked at optimal ripeness. The estate uses crates, which ensure that coffee is not damaged during transportation and also allows air circulation for the coffee fruits, thereby preventing unnecessary early fermentation.

After selection and weighing, the coffee fruits are carefully washed and placed on raised African drying beds to dry, then turned every hour. After about a week, the coffee fruits are placed in cocoa dryers. Previously, cocoa dryers had never been seen used for coffee bean processing, but Pedro from the Rodriguez family has been innovating and experimenting with different processing techniques, discovering that cocoa dryers can slowly and continuously dry coffee beans at low temperatures, thereby reducing the impact of weather conditions. After the coffee beans are dried, they are transported to La Paz for resting, and then dehulled at Agricafe's drying factory, La Luna. Mechanical careful coffee dehulling and sorting are used at this factory, and in addition, manual sorting under ultraviolet and natural light is required.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

When roasting this cocoa natural processed Java, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters adopted a medium-light degree of roasting to highlight the fermentation notes brought by the processing method and the floral, berry, and nut characteristics of the Java beans themselves.

Yangjia 800N, roasting amount 480g: Heat at 170°C into the drum, firepower 120, damper opening 3; Return temperature point at 1'36", when the drum temperature reaches 111°C, open the damper to 4; When the drum temperature reaches 151°C, the bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage; When the temperature reaches 164°C, open the damper to 5, ugly wrinkles and black patterns appear on the bean surface, toast smell clearly changes to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack, starting at 10'18", damper unchanged, develop for 1'00" minute after first crack, discharge at 190°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's baristas generally use 200ml ceramic bowls with markings at 150ml and 200ml. According to SCAA standards, water TDS is around 150ppm. Too low TDS can easily cause over-extraction, while too high TDS affects mouthfeel and can easily cause under-extraction. The water temperature used for cupping is 94°C. The cupping grind size is controlled according to SCAA cupping standards, with a pass rate of 70%-75% through a #20 standard sieve (0.85mm). Ratio: 11 grams of coffee powder plus 200ml of hot water, i.e., 1:18.18, so the extracted concentration falls within the 1.15%-1.35% Golden Cup range. Soaking time: 4 minutes.

Dry Aroma: Fermentation aroma

Wet Aroma: Grapes, fermentation notes

Flavor: Fermentation notes, grapes, nuts, slight floral notes, honey, cream

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Experience

For brewing medium-light roasted beans, it is recommended to use 90-91°C. Using higher water temperature can extract the aromatic substances and acidity from light roasted beans. Because medium-light roasted beans have harder texture, increasing water temperature can increase extraction efficiency from the coffee powder, avoiding unpleasant flavors such as sharp acidity.

Water Temperature: 90-91°C

Grind Size: BG#6m (80% pass rate through #20 sieve)

Powder to Water Ratio: 1:15

Powder Amount: 15 grams

Regarding grind size, FrontStreet Coffee determines it through sieving methods, based on grinding suggestions provided by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) for pour-over coffee, combined with practical operation verification. If you don't have a sieve at home, FrontStreet Coffee suggests observing the flow rate to determine: if the water flows too fast, the grind is coarse; if the water flows too slowly, the grind is fine.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g more (electronic scale shows around 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the powder layer, pour the remaining 100g (electronic scale shows around 225g), completing the pour in about 1 minute 40 seconds. Drip filtration completes between 1'55"-2'00", remove the filter cone, completing extraction.

Brewing Flavor: Slight fermentation notes, grapes, slight nuts, floral notes, medium acidity, juice-like mouthfeel.

Important Notice :

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