Our videocast: In My Mug
Episodes
Sunday Aug 28, 2016
Sunday Aug 28, 2016
Due to the complications within the Bolivian coffee industry, many of the smaller Bolivian farms we have worked with in the past are no longer producing coffee. Whilst this has created some challenges for us, it has had a much more significant impact on our exporting partners AgriCafe, who have been working with these growers for many years. As a result AgriCafe have decided to begin farming for themselves, in an effort to demonstrate what can be achieved with the application of more modern techniques and a scientific farming approach.
AgriCafe now manage seven farms, and these are collectively known as the Buena Vista Project. Finca Don Carlos is the second farm of the project, and it was planted in Caranavi in 2014.
The farm is named in honour of Don Carlos, the oldest and most unconditionally awesome employee of AgriCafe. He was there at the start of the specialty coffee trend and, together with Pedro, helped to build the wet mill in Caranavi. To show their gratitude for all his good work, the company decided to give him partnership of the farm.
Finca Don Carlos is a very unique farm planted with all the care and dedication of Don Carlos himself. The farm sits at an altitude of 1,450–1,650 metres above sea level, and it is located in Caranavi, which is the capital of the Caranavi province in the Yungas region of Bolivia.
In the cup you'll find the same sweet, silky milk chocolate and hazelnut as in the Caturra lot, but here the volume is turned down just a little. My favourite part of this coffee is the rhubarb: it's like nibbling on a stick of rhubarb dipped in white sugar. It really slices through the milk chocolate.
- Country: Bolivia
- Farm: Finca Don Carlos
- Varietal: Catuai
- Altitude: 1,450–1,650 m.a.s.l.
- Processing method: washed
- Washing: manual
- Fermentation: dry
- Drying: stationary dryer