Single Origin of the Month: BOLIVIA 8 Estrellas

Bolivia is a country with such diverse landscapes – from the tropical, dense Amazon basin to the crisp cool air (and surreal salt flats) of the Andean altiplano.

This month we are loving a sweet, bright and organic bean from Bolivia – ‘Colonia San Juan 8 Estrellas’.

This coffee is produced by owner Juan Ticona and his seven neighbours in the Caranavi Provence, around 200km north of La Paz, at an altitude of 1,300-1,700m. This community of 8 farms or ‘estrellas’ (meaning stars) all use organic farming methods. Their coffee plants are grown in a clay soil under the shade of banana trees and native forest trees – whose heavy leaf fall creates a natural mulch fertilizer for the soil.

This lot is made up of three different varietals – Typica (around 75%), Caturra and Catuai.

The coffee is hand picked before going through the wet mill and then sun dried on raised beds.

The result is a clean, balanced coffee with bright, caramel-like sweetness. Works great as a filter coffee, but we like it for pretty much all methods!