The Bolivian coffee harvest runs from April (below 1,000 masl) to October (up to 2,000 masl). In 2006 the country exported 85,000 bags of green coffee. The coffee rust hit the region very hard after that and the production dropped to 20,000 in 2017. Caranavi known as the capital of coffee is located in the lush forest of the Yungas region. This is where the famous Death Road follows the Andes Mountains from the dry Altiplano to the lush green forest of the Amazon jungle. This unique region has two climates and is home to the most fertile soil and consequently where the majority of coffee in Bolivia is produced. All the coffee has to travel this treacherous road to be processed and exported from La Paz. The complex and expensive road transportation adds a significant cost to the coffee exported from Bolivia.
Manco Kapak is a colony in the Caranavi area of Yungus. The average altitude is around 1550 masl and is surrounded by dense forest. After the land reforms in the 1950s, the Bolivian government encouraged people from the Altiplano and La Paz to move down to the tropical agricultural areas to farm coffee by giving them free parcels of land. Manco Kapak was one of the settlements for people from the Altiplano, and therefore many of the coffee producers there are very small - between 1 and 3 hectares and farm using no invasive chemicals. All of the producers in this area have Caturra, Catuai or Typica tress know for producing great quality coffee with excellent sweetness and acidity.
Coffee producers in the area produce small amount of coffee from their farms which they deliver to the Buena Vista mill in Caranavi for processing. This allows all of the producers to reduce their risk as they get paid immediately, and it allows the mill to control the quality of processing ensuring the highest possible cup scores. We've selected one of the honey processed microlots. After mechanical pulping to remove the fruit, the beans are directly moved to raised beds for 3-4 days before being dried in mechanical dryers: big square boxes with hot air flow at the bottom. When on sunbeds, coffee is moved every 30 min in the morning and every hour in the afternoon. When in the boxes, coffee is moved every hour. The temperature in the mechanical dryers never goes over 40 degrees Celsius and moisture and temperature are constantly monitored for an even drying environment.
Brewing
This coffee works well with all filter brewers and espresso. For filter we recommend a 1 - 16 brew ratio, and for espresso a 1 - 2.2 brew ratio.
Example - Filter: 15g - 250ml // Espresso: 18g - 40g
