Bolivia - Novarro Family Coco Natural

Origine: Taipiplaya, Caranavi, La Paz,  Bolivia
Variety: Caturra
Process: Coco Natural
Elevation: 1,646 MASL
Farm Owners: The Navarro Family

This special microlot was produced by the Navarro family in Taipiplaya, a remote township on the outskirts of the Caranavi province. Caranavi is the epicentre for specialty production in Bolivia, with incredibly high elevations, rich soil, and wide daily temperature ranges providing the perfect conditions to produce exceptional coffee.

While the Navarros are originally from the department of Potosí, in central Bolivia, the family left the region looking for better income opportunities by working in agriculture. While two of the siblings moved to the department of Sucre, and another to Cochabamba, the rest of them moved to Taipiplaya (which is in the department of La Paz) in 2006.

Led by son Víctor, five members of the family have established themselves with neighbouring plots of land in the community of Barrio Nuevo. Parents Don Mariano and Doña Victoria live with Víctor and his family, while his sisters Julia (the eldest) and Cármen live next door, and together they farm four hectares of land.

Known as Finca Navarro, the family’s farm is found at 1,600-1,700m above sea level and is made up of Caturra and Catuaí trees. Interestingly, because it sits at sixteen degrees latitude (for reference, most farms in Caranavi sit at fifteen degrees), cherry maturation here is quite slow, leading to more complex sugars and a greater intensity of flavour in the final cup.

HOW THIS COFFEE WAS PROCESSED

This particular lot from the Navarro family was carefully hand-picked and processed on the same day at the Buena Vista washing station. This meticulously run mill is owned by Agricafe, who painstakingly process each of the exceptional specialty lots they receive separately to allow for full traceability back to the individual farmer or family.

Agricafe draw a lot of inspiration from the wine industry in their approach to coffee production, and are always innovating and trialling different processing techniques at Buena Vista. This coffee was processed with experimental techniques, part of the Rodriguez family’s long term strategy to achieve the greatest distinction and diversity in their special lots.

Cherries for this lot were delivered to Agricafe’s state of the art mill Buena Vista in the evening. After being inspected and weighed, the coffee cherry was carefully sorted by weight using water and disinfected, in a large capacity machine the Rodríguez family have dubbed ‘La Maravilla,’ which translates to ‘the wonder’ due to its efficiency. Not only does this new piece of equipment use significantly less resources than in previous years, but it recirculates water several times before it is treated and returned to the local waterways. Coffee was then carefully washed and laid out to dry on patio for 48-72 hours, and then placed in one of Buena Vista’s ‘stationary box’ (or coco) dryers, until it reached 11.5% humidity.