Over the last decade, our partners at Agricafe have been trying to save the Bolivian coffee industry and build a more sustainable future for it. To do so, the Rodriguez family started Sol de la Mañana, a quest to educate local producers by providing training and skills necessary to improve the quality of their farms. Pedro Flores has been part of Agricafe’s Sol de la Mañana program since 2015 and follows a structured series of courses focused on enhancing the quality and yield at his farm as part of the program. Pedro’s farm, Finca El Mirador, is 10 hectares and is located 1,550–1,650 masl.
This lot was carefully hand-picked and processed on the same day at the Buena Vista washing station. This meticulously run mill, owned by Agricafe, processes each exceptional specialty lot they receive separately to allow full traceability back to the individual farmer. After being inspected and weighed, the coffee is carefully sorted by weight using water, and floaters are removed. It’s then depulped and placed in PVC tanks without water to ferment. After 48 hours, the coffee is washed with fresh, clean water and placed inside one of Buena Vista’s ‘stationary box’ dryers for a total of 3 days. Once the coffee is dry, it’s transported to La Paz, where it rests before being milled at Agricafe’s dry mill, La Luna. At this state-of-the-art mill, the coffee is first hulled and sorted using machinery and then by a team of workers who meticulously sorted the coffee again (this time by hand) under UV and natural light. In a mug of High Road Bolivia, you’ll find notes of almond, white grape, and peach rounded out by the delicate mouthfeel of black tea.
As a whole, Bolivia only exports about 20,000 bags of coffee each year (that’s about 72 shipping containers), so to be able to share this coffee via Farm to Cup relationship is truly special. Grab a bag of High Road Bolivia and come along for the journey.
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