Bolivia Organic Washed

Bolivia Organic Washed Yulissa Chambi San Lorenzo Municipality

Grower

Yulissa Chambi

Region

San Lorenzo, Caranavi province, La Paz Department, Bolivia

Elevation

1550 masl

Cultivar

Red catuai

Process

Washed

Yulissa’s Farm

In the 1980s, Yulissa’s family purchased a 20-hectare piece of property in the Yungas region, in the mountains surrounding the small valley city of Caranavi. At the time, the farm was pure jungle; no roads or services of any kind could access it.

5 years after the purchase, her family planted 4 hectares of coffee. For the next 40 years the family land was cherished for its location and refuge from city life in La Paz, but due to declining coffee prices and disinvestment from Bolivia’s government, coffee production was not a viable trade for the family, and was therefore not an investment worth making. Over the years the coffee trees aged and lost their production, and the family remained in the city where occupational prospects were far better.

In 2019, Yulissa’s generation decided it was time to renovate the farm. Bolivia’s specialty coffee had developed to the point where Caranavi was seen as an area of high terroir potential, and Yulissa herself, barely out of secondary school, was interested in the bubbling specialty roaster and barista culture in the city.

Between 2019 and 2021, the original 4 hectares were re-planted, along with 3 new ones. With this newly invigorated coffee under her control, Yulissa dedicated herself to producing coffee the best way possible. In the process she also set to learning the rest of the value chain, from milling to roasting and barismo—the art and practice of being a barista, which strangely has no English equivalent.

The 7 hectares of coffee is managed by extended family and neighbors throughout the year. During harvest the family employs 8 pickers, and otherwise covers all necessary harvesting and processing themselves.

From royalcoffee.com