Bolivia Coffee Growing Regions: Introduction to the Origin and Flavor Profile of Bolivian Coffee Beans

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Bolivia is a fascinating place. Although known as a paradise for coffee cultivation, its production has remained relatively low. FrontStreet Coffee is deeply impressed by the delicate flavors of Bolivian coffee, which typically manifests in rich sweetness and gentle acidity. At the 2017 WBC (World Barista Championship), Japanese competitor Miki Suzuki used Bolivian Geisha coffee beans, and with her superb technique and the profound flavors of Bolivian coffee, she achieved world runner-up.

Speaking of Bolivian Geisha, FrontStreet Coffee must mention a Java coffee bean we recently cupped. Java can be considered a cousin variety to Bolivian Geisha, emitting unique and elegant flavors, delightfully sweet and sour, with a creamy smooth texture.

Bolivia

Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America bordering Brazil. Bolivia possesses diverse terrain, from the high peaks of the Andes to vast salt plains, with an average elevation exceeding 3,000 meters. The constitutional capital is Sucre, while the actual government seat is La Paz, which sits at an altitude of over 3,600 meters, making it the world's highest capital city. High altitude provides significant advantages for coffee cultivation, yet Bolivia's coffee industry remains weak, with an annual production of only 223,000 bags (60kg per bag).

The low production stems from several reasons. First, transportation difficulties: coffee growing areas often have rugged and dangerous roads, making it challenging to transport coffee. The North Yungas Road is recognized as the world's most dangerous road, with mountain paths basically clinging to cliff edges without guardrails. Foggy conditions often lead to accidents. Hundreds of people die in traffic accidents here each year, giving it the nickname "El Camino de la Muerte" (The Death Road). Such harsh transportation conditions create enormous difficulties for coffee transport. In recent years, the Bolivian government has recognized that safe transportation is crucial for exports and is heavily investing in road construction.

Another important reason is Bolivia's small population of only 10.5 million people. Many people are quite poor, and cultivating coca leaves (used for drugs) offers more guaranteed returns, causing many farmers to abandon coffee cultivation and even completely give up their farms. Coca cultivation requires extensive chemical pesticides and fertilizers, causing severe soil damage. Additionally, in 2013, leaf rust attacked, and within just one year, Bolivia lost 50% of its coffee production, directly reducing it to a minor coffee-producing nation.

Bolivian Coffee Development History

In 1880, Bolivia had substantial coffee production, mainly located on some large farms north of La Paz.

In 1991, the government promoted a plan to encourage indigenous people to enter coffee cultivation, but it did not emphasize coffee quality. The government encouraged coca leaf cultivation, which yields four times the profit of coffee, causing many farmers to abandon coffee and even completely give up their farms.

In the early 2000s, the United States strongly supported Bolivian agriculture, but due to the Bolivian government's support for coca cultivation, relations with the US deteriorated, and coffee farmers suffered the most. Later, under Bolivia's resumption of limited anti-drug operations, many beneficial coffee development programs restarted, such as COE, which was held with USAID support.

In 2004, the Cup of Excellence (COE) was held in Bolivia, where 13 specialty beans scored above 84 points in cupping, with the champion bean scoring as high as 90.44 points, and green bean prices rose accordingly.

In 2009, Bolivia participated in the COE competition for the last time. Due to political factors, Bolivia has not yet returned to COE.

In 2013, leaf rust attacked, combined with the government's coca leaf policy, and over the past decade, Bolivia's coffee production decreased by 70%, reducing it to a minor coffee-producing nation.

In 2018, Bolivia signed a quality inspection agreement with China regarding Bolivian coffee exports.

In 2019, Bolivia's political turmoil made everything uncertain again. The coup caused city paralysis, making coffee exports extremely difficult.

Cultivation Model

Bolivian coffee can usually be traced back to single farms or cooperatives. Due to land reform, large landowners have significantly decreased since 1991. The 23,000 coffee-producing families in Bolivia all grow coffee on small farms ranging from 1.2-8 hectares.

Coffee Regions

Bolivia's main coffee production area is Yungas, with cultivation altitudes between 800-2,300 meters and harvest periods from July to November. 95% of Bolivia's coffee comes from this region. Yungas is located on the eastern side of the Andes Mountains, covered by continuous forest that extends from Peru through Bolivia into Argentina. The region features some of the world's highest-altitude coffee and is Bolivia's oldest coffee-producing region. The previously mentioned government seat of La Paz is located in the western part of this region.

Besides Yungas, Santa Cruz and Beni also grow coffee. Santa Cruz is located in the easternmost part of Bolivia, but due to insufficient altitude, high-quality coffee is rare, with cultivation accounting for about 3% of the national total.

The Rodriguez Family

The development of specialty coffee in Bolivia can be credited to the Rodriguez family. The Rodriguez family began growing coffee in 1986. Due to policies, natural disasters, and various other factors, Bolivian coffee estates gradually decreased. To develop the coffee industry, the Rodriguez family began acquiring land and establishing new estates to cultivate high-quality specialty coffee, such as Bolivian Geisha coffee beans.

The Rodriguez family's coffee estates comprise a total of 12 farms, with 4 in Santa Cruz and 8 in Caranavi, La Paz. The estates achieve integrated harvesting, processing, packaging, and export operations.

The "El Sol de Manana" (Tomorrow's Sun) program is an initiative launched by the Rodriguez family in 2016 to support small farmers in growing high-quality coffee. By providing farmers with more vocational training and knowledge skills, offering discounts on purchasing the latest coffee seeds and other related consultations, as well as more fair trade prices; meanwhile establishing reward mechanisms for farmers who seriously cultivate and achieve certain cupping scores, thereby improving local coffee quality and creating a virtuous cycle where farmer income and quality enter sustainable operation.

FrontStreet Coffee previously cupped a batch of washed Java Typica coffee beans from the Tomorrow's Sun program, which possessed rich flavor profiles, gentle strawberry acidity, caramel sweetness, and slight cocoa and almond aftertaste.

Coffee Varieties

Bolivia's traditional coffee cultivation varieties mainly include Typica, Catuai, Red and Yellow Caturra, among others. With the push of the specialty coffee wave, in the past twenty years, many coffee estates have introduced varieties including Bolivian Geisha, Pacamara, SL28, etc. The Rodriguez family's Bolivian Geisha coffee bean variety comes from the world-renowned Hacienda La Esmeralda.

Java (Java Nica) comes from a branch of Ethiopian Abysinia, an original ancient variety. This branch is actually the same as Geisha - same branch, same origin, and both possess excellent floral and fruit flavors. For this reason, Java is often called Geisha's cousin.

However, FrontStreet Coffee wants to remind you that the Java mentioned here is different from Indonesian Java. Indonesian Java is actually a synonym for coffee-producing regions, while Bolivian Java refers to a coffee variety; moreover, Indonesian Java has lost its innate excellent genes through centuries of transfer, and the two belong to different branches.

FrontStreet Coffee will briefly review how Java came to the Americas. After Indonesia, the Java variety first spread to nearby Timor island groups, then to Cameroon in East Africa, where it was first released for farmer cultivation in 1980.

In 1991, to provide more variety choices for small coffee growers while also considering conditions like low fertilizer requirements, CIRAD (International Center for Agricultural Research and Development) introduced Java to Costa Rica, after which it was brought to various Central and South American countries, and it was discovered that Java performs well in flavor at high altitudes.

With Java cultivation in Central America, the Mierisch family of Nicaragua was the first to draw the specialty coffee market's attention to this variety; and to distinguish Indonesian Java coffee from the Java variety, they named the Central American Java variety as JAVA NICA (meaning Java variety from Nicaragua). Java coffee has emerged in Central and South America in recent years, and in Bolivia, it has been carefully cultivated by the Rodriguez family.

This year, FrontStreet Coffee cupped a Bolivian cocoa natural processed Java coffee bean from the Rodriguez family. It comes from a small estate called Waliki, located in the Bolinda community in a dense, steep valley about 10 kilometers outside Caranavi town, La Paz, Bolivia, at an altitude of over 1,600 meters. The region's climate is cold, and the coffee cultivation cycle is relatively long. FrontStreet Coffee will introduce this bean in detail below.

Processing Methods

From the 1990s to the 21st century, thanks to foreign-funded development projects that established coffee washing processing plants, the vast majority of Bolivian small farmers use traditional washed processing methods. A few large estates, besides classic processing methods like natural, washed, and honey, are also experimenting with special processing methods like anaerobic fermentation and yeast, and among these few large estates is the Rodriguez family.

As mentioned earlier, FrontStreet Coffee obtained a Bolivian coffee bean using cocoa natural processing, which was developed by the Rodriguez family. After selection and weighing, the coffee cherries are carefully washed and placed on raised African drying beds, then turned every hour. After about a week, the coffee cherries are placed in a cocoa dryer.

Cocoa dryers had never been seen before for coffee bean processing, but Pedro Rodriguez has been continuously innovating and trying different processing techniques, discovering that cocoa dryers can dry coffee beans slowly and consistently 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 the coffee beans are dried, they are transported to La Paz for resting, then dehulled at the dry mill. Mechanical equipment is used at this mill for careful coffee dehulling and sorting, and additionally, manual sorting under ultraviolet and natural light is required.

FrontStreet Coffee: Bolivia Waliki Estate Cocoa Natural Java

Bolivia Waliki Coco Natural Java

Coffee Region: La Paz

Cultivation Altitude: 1600 meters

Coffee Variety: Java

Processing Method: Cocoa Natural Processing

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