Felipe Guarachi Tola, Bolivia

It’s uncertain exactly how coffee arrived in Bolivia, though it’s most likely that it was brought by enslaved people from Africa, introducing coffee as a commodity. The earliest records show that 18th-century landowners grew and consumed their own coffee in the Yungas region, but it was never a primary cash crop. For most of the 20th century, 95% of Bolivia’s agricultural market was coca production. The agriculture sector later diversified its crops to reduce dependency on coca alone, and the rise of global coffee consumption in the 1970s encouraged and incentivised coffee production. Producers in new areas of Bolivia began growing coffee, including Caranavi and La Asunta - both renowned coffee regions today.

Although Bolivia’s production and export volume is no longer at its 1990s peak, coffee remains a profitable commodity in very high demand in the specialty market. It is also one of the primary focuses in the National Strategy for Sustainable Integral Development, a long-term initiative to boost the production of competitive agro-industrial products for both local and international markets.

Felipe Guarachi Tola cultivates his coffee at Finca Chuquiago in Caranavi, La Paz. This northwestern department borders Peru, featuring some of the Andes’ most extreme terrain and abundant forests and water sources. The name Chuquiago is derived from Chuquiago Marka, the indigenous Aymara name for the area now known as La Paz - Felipe’s way of paying homage to the region’s cultural heritage.

Today, more than 12,000 families in Caranavi depend on coffee. Many, like Felipe, are part of the indigenous community driving Bolivia’s rise in specialty coffee. While there’s still room to grow, cooperatives, education, and research initiatives are positioning Bolivia as one of the most exciting origins to watch.

This lot is of the Java variety, an Ethiopian landrace that was brought to Indonesia by Dutch colonists, later transplanted to Cameroon, and introduced to Central and South America in the 1990s. Bolivia shares similar practices to Colombian specialty producers, where smallholders invest in their own processing mills for greater control and diversity of their product. This lot is considered a washed process, though the process begins with a brief anaerobic fermentation, where whole cherries are placed in tanks prior to pulping, fermenting, and washing. This step, increasingly common to enhance the impact of body and fruit character, is followed by the classic washed process.