Bolivia - Elvis

Tastes Like: Plum, caramel & wild berries. Juicy & round body

REGION: Copacabana, Caranavi

VARIETAL: Caturra

PROCESSING: Washed

ALTITUDE: 1550 masl

Context

Finca The Sol de la Mañana Project was set up by the Rodriguez family (Pedro and his children, Daniela and Pedro Pablo), one of the most highly respected coffee producing families in Bolivia. In 2014 a group of local producers approached Pedro requesting support and guidance on how to increase the quality and yield of their coffee. The family established the Project as a mentoring program to guide these producers through every step of coffee farming – from setting up their nurseries to the benefits of careful pruning and using fertiliser. Pedro Pablo also visits each producer’s farm on a monthly basis to provide feedback on their farming practices, and they also benefit from weekly engineer visits. The program has been an undeniable success. Producers have substantially increased both the quality and volume of cherries produced every harvest (in many cases, from 10 to 25 bags of cherries per hectare of their land), translating to a higher income, year on year. The members of the project also have the opportunity to sell their coffee cherries to the Rodriguez family. Each producer receives 70% of the price sold for their coffee.

The Rodriguez family takes a precise approach to processing, which is undertaken at their own wet and dry mills. This means quality assurance is built into the Project from start to finish. After receiving the ripe cherries from producers, they add them to a tank filled with fresh water, which removes dust and debris. The under-ripe (i.e., lesser dense) cherries float to the surface, where they can be skimmed off. The remaining cherries are depulped then fermented in stainless steel tanks for a maximum of 48 hours, then washed. This is followed by a controlled slow-drying process in a mechanical dryer for 100 hours (at a maximum of 35°C). Once the coffee reaches the desired moisture level, they are sent to the dry mill built by the Rodriguez family for milling, grading and sorting.