This special microlot was produced by the influential Mamani Familyin Uchumachi, a small and remote settlement 180 kilometres from Bolivian capital La Paz, in the heart of the Caranavi province. Caranavi is the epicentre for specialty coffee production in Bolivia, with incredibly highelevations, rich soil, and wide daily temperature ranges providing the perfect conditions to produce exceptional coffee.
Mamani is a very common name throughout Bolivia, but in this case, we refer to the family members Juan Carlos, Juana, Mauricio, Lorenza, Norberto, René and Nicolasa — who are known throughout the region for the coffee that they grow and the impact that they’ve had on coffee production within their community. This particular lot comes from René and Nicolasa Mamani’s farm Finca Renacer and Juana and Juan Carlos Mamani’sFinca Llana, which together make up some fourteen hectares.
The Mamani siblings and their spouses own neighbouring farms located in the Caranavi Province in Bolivia. When the family first started producing coffee, they would sell it to the local market as wet parchment – known locally as café en mote. But over the last 15 years, the entire family has focused on producing specialty grade coffee. Now, they selectively pick their coffee cherries and sell their top-grade coffees for substantially higher prices to our longtime partners the Rodríguez family at Agricafe as part of their Sol de la Mañana program. Since joining the program in 2015, the family follows a very structured series of courses focused on improving both quality and, critically, yield quantity at their farms. The curriculum hones in on one aspect of farming at a time and includes information on building and maintaining a coffee nursery, when to prune and use fertiliser, how to avoid and treat leaf rust, and how to selectively pick coffee.
Alongside producing incredible coffee, the Mamanis are very entrepreneurial. In the last couple of years, as yields rose, Mauricio sold his main farm, and purchased another one nearby with the goal of building it up and improve it. Juana and Juan Carlos have also recently purchased a plot with Juana’s brother René and his wife Nicolasa. This new plot is up the hill from their farms Llana and Renacer, and it is being tended to following organic practices and under the shade of cedar and inga trees. While this approach is a departure from Sol de La Mañana practices, Juana and Juan Carlos reckon starting a plantation from scratch on fertile, untouched soil is the only way to make organic farming work in the region. So far, the new plot has required a lot of attention, but the soil is less needy and less fertiliser is required as a result of their practices.
