Episode 379 on Monday the 15th of February, 2016. Bolivia La Linda Washed Red Caturra.

In Bolivia, coffee production was traditionally concentrated in the region of Los Yungas where lush subtropical vegetation and environmental conditions helped to produce the amazing quality Bolivian coffee that we all know and love.

Caranavi is located north of the department of La Paz city – 150 kilometers from the capital, is the center of Bolivian coffee production. It's fertile soils and altitude gave Bolivia the potential to produce brilliant and unique coffees.

Due to the many complications and challenges within the Bolivian coffee growing industry many of the smaller 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 they have decided to begin farming 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 7 farms, of which La Linda is the first to bear fruit and is known as The Seed Garden for the other farms in the Buena Vista project.  Alongside this Red Caturra lot the farm is producing Catuai and Typica lots as well as Java, SL28 and Bourbon which are all new plantings in Bolivia. All the coffee has been picked by a group of seven specifically trained female workers.

The newer varieties will only become available next year but we are incredibly proud to support this project and the producers of Caranavi.

In the cup this coffee creates a wonderful new dark chocolate selection box chocolate for me, a dark chocolate raspberry cream! This is a super clean coffee with a velvety texture and creamy aftertaste.

• Country: Bolivia
• Region: Los Yungas
• Farm: La Linda
• Altitude: 1,400 - 1,450 m.a.s.l.
• Processing Method: Mechanically Washed
• Varietal: Red Caturra