Finca Aurora Machaca, Bolivia

Among coffee drinkers, Bolivia often doesn't receive the same attention or awareness in the world of specialty coffee, understandably so in comparison to larger producing regions that neighbour it in South America such as Brazil, Colombia, or even Ecuador and Peru. One of the main reasons is that the country is relatively young in its commercial coffee-producing history, and being landlocked makes it harder to access markets compared to neighbours that have their own ports. For decades, most of Bolivia’s coffee would be trucked along the world's most dangerous road, "Death Road," connecting areas between Yungas and La Paz, until relatively recently when a highway opened in 2006. 

Coffee first arrived in the Yungas region of northeast La Paz in Bolivia in the 18th century. It is not known for certain how it arrived, but it was likely introduced by enslaved people from Africa and was consumed locally by landowners rather than cultivated for export.

Through the 19th century, Bolivia would export far less coffee than its neighbours, primarily to a European market, and for most of the 20th century, coca dominated the agricultural industry, making up a shocking 95% of Bolivia's agricultural market. This eventually came as a reality check for the Bolivian state to introduce crop diversification initiatives, coffee being one of them. 

The Caranavi province was primarily unsettled land, and in the 1960s, it was allocated by the government to indigenous farmers and miners to cultivate coffee. The great rise of global coffee prices in the 70s would bring plenty of attention and support through development programs, securing coffee as a sustaining crop for farming families.

During this period until the early 90s, production was dominated by wealthy landowners, and when the land reform passed in 1991, land was relinquished and returned to indigenous communities that would then become the main smallholders of Bolivia's coffee industry today, most of which organised as cooperatives. 

Finca Aurora Machaca was established in 2011 by producer Jhony Machaca, cultivating his mix of Red Catuai and Typica cherries across 3.5 hectares of 4,000 coffee trees within his greater 9-hectare land. The farm itself sits at 1550 MASL in the Caranavi region of La Paz. Cherries are harvested from June through September, and this lot undergoes a washed process — depulped and fermented in water before rinsing and drying on raised beds for approximately 2 weeks. Jhony Machaca's coffee is recognised as organic certified.