Rogue Wave Coffee - Bolivia Irupana, Jeivert Panuni
Tasting Notes: Chocolate | Raspberry | Apricot | Nougat
Origin: Bolivia
Region: Irupana municipality, La Paz, Colombia
Farm and Producer: Jeivert Pañuni
Variety: Caturra and Catuai
Elevation: 1800 Meters above sea level
Harvest: mid-Late 2020
Process: Natural - dried in the fruit on raise bed in the sun
More about this coffee:
Bolivia is South America's only landlocked coffee producing country and is the smallest exporter of coffee on the continent. The quality of that coffee, however, is hardly lacking in diversity or beauty. Bolivia’s terrain and geography is gifted for arabica production, particularly throughout its greater Yungas region (Yungas is Aymara for "warm lands"), whose mountain ranges connect the low and humid Amazonian basin to the dry Andean altiplano above. The most productive municipality in the Yungas is by far Caranaví, where 85-90% of Bolivia's specialty coffee has continued to thrive over the decades. But coffee is produced throughout a very wide area of the greater Yungas territory in Bolivia, all of which shares the same steep, cloudy, rugged, and remote landscape as Caranaví. Coffee farms in this high and tropical climate tend to be well-managed but small, challenged by isolation and lacking in long-term industry support. Bolivian growers still often don’t have processing equipment or transportation of their own, a massive hurdle in such territory.
This coffee is a naturally processed microlot from Jeivert, a single farmer member of San Juan cooperative. Jeivert’s farm is south of Caranaví in the Irupana municipality. It is also hundreds of meters higher in elevation. Being so high, cherry maturation is slowed greatly and his coffee trees tend to require an extra month or two of picking compared to farmers further down. This, despite having less overall shade on his farm than is typical for the region—in fact, none at all—instead letting the high and cloudy climate temper the coffee’s exposure to the elements. Harvesting for naturals is a careful ripeness selection and hand picking, and drying on raised beds with constant scrutiny for imperfections among the cherry as it dries. The final profile is wonderfully rich and expressive of tropical fruit and sweetened condensed milk. Biodiversity, soil health, elevation, and progressive leadership in San Juan all work undeniably in favor of small farmers seeking sustainable livelihoods with coffee. Yet, facing each and every Bolivian coffee, especially the best ones, is one of the most strenuous overland transits in the coffee world, passing elevations of 4000 meters over the top of the Andes and west to the port of Arica on Chile’s coast. The country’s low production, select few producer groups in the specialty game, and formidable logistical challenges, means each successful arrival is something to be cherished. Particularly for microlots as unique as this one.