One single origin, too boring?
In today's globalized world we got used to have almost immediate access to seemingly infinite products from any corner of the globe, most of times just one click away. The same goes for coffee, where specialty roasters acquire the "best" beans of any given origin: Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Panama, Ethiopia, Kenya, Guatemala, just to name a few. Origins stand for diversity, but are they really?
When looking closer at the offerings of both well-known and lesser known roasters located in consuming countries (North America, Europe, Asia and Australia), we do find all those important single origins. So yes, we definitively have a wide(r) choice there, but it might be an apparent diversity. Are those wide spread coffees a real differentiator for a specialty roaster? When looking at the details of the available beans in any given season, something strange does appear over and over: the same names of producers from each origin. While the top producing countries are over-represented, this can be explained by the sheer volume of green coffee they produce, but the question of diversity arises with the names of producers. Isn't it boring to always find the same 3-4 names of a given origin? Sometimes even the same beans? Is the hunt for the "world's highest quality beans" bringing enough diversity to the market? Are other (smaller, unknown) producers unable to produce high quality beans?
Through our sister roastery Elevate Coffee Bolivia, we are specialty roasters in one of the smaller, lesser known origins: Bolivia, which is the 38th coffee producing country in the world with only 30'000 60Kg bags of coffee produced yearly. A real feather weight. Import barriers don't allow us to roast green coffees from other origins, so our offering is limited to 100% Bolivian coffees. And while there are 3 producing regions within Bolivia, at the moment we focus on only one of these regions: Caranavi. Given these constraints, how are we able to offer diversity to our customers?
Producers and microlots
The first diversity factor in our beans line-up is coming from the number of small family run Fincas and their microlots, spread over the Caranavi region. Caranavi lies within the Bolivian Yungas, lying between the mighty Andes mountain chain and the vast and fertile Amazonas at an elevation of 1400 to 2500 masl. Where these two merge, they give life to perfect conditions for growing high quality Arabica coffee: high elevation valleys with one of the biggest biodiversity in the world. For the 2021 harvest we teamed up with 7 producers, from promising newcomers to award winning fincas: Finca Isabel, Finca Senda Salvaje, Rodolfo & Ilsa, Reynaldo Ardores, Doña Santusa, Rodrigo Gutierrez and Nolberto & Rocío. Their farms are located in the 6 communities Loaiza, Bolinda, Loa, Suri, Uchumachi and Nueva Llusta Primera, each of which has a slightly different microclimate and terroir that gives each microlot a particular sensory touch.
Varieties and processing methods
In comparison to other producing countries, Bolivia isn't known for a specific domestic variety, the coffee grown here comes from all around the world, especially other South American and Central American countries but also Africa. In 2022 we are happy to be offering 8 interesting varieties from the sought after Arabica species: Geisha, Caturra, Castillo, Iapar, Catuaí, Java, Pacamara and Typica, each with a different aromatic profile to cater to a wide array of palates. These varieties are processed with 9 different processing methods, from the wider known Washed, Honey, Natural to lesser widespread and more experimental Anaerobic Natural, Semi-Anaerobic Natural, Slowly fermented Washed, Carbonic Macerated Natural, Kenia Washed and Anaerobic Washed. We believe that varieties but especially processing methods are the new barrier to expand diversity, much more so than origins.
Specialty roasts
Each bean has unique aromatic characteristics given by the mix of terroir, variety and processing methods. With our carefully profiled, small batch specialty roasts on a S7Pro electric roaster from Stronghold Technology, we try to highlight the specific sensory feast inherent to each bean, translating the diversity among them into the final cup and allowing everyone to explore our origin Bolivia through some of the best coffees it produces. Instead of going worldwide, we narrow it down to one origin into which we dive deep, offering exclusive beans, so elusive to be unavailable elsewhere.