From source to sip
The story behind your next cup.
Three hours northeast of La Paz, the road drops off the Andean altiplano into the Yungas, a tangle of cloud forest and near-vertical farmland on the mountains' eastern slopes. In the San Lorenzo hills above Caranavi, Yulissa Chambi revived a neglected family plot and turned it into one of Bolivia's most requested microlots.
Bolivia is a quiet name in specialty coffee, landlocked and small by volume, but Caranavi province has become the country's center of gravity. It accounts for the large majority of Bolivia's specialty production, a remote stretch of steep ridges, heavy rainfall, and volcanic soil that sits under near-constant forest cover. Since the Cup of Excellence first arrived in 2004, these high-grown lots have earned a reputation for delicate, bright, aromatically sweet cups that reward careful sourcing.
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The Coffee Story
The SourceCaranavi, the Heart of Bolivian Specialty
Bolivia is a quiet name in specialty coffee, landlocked and small by volume, but Caranavi province has become the country's center of gravity. It accounts for the large majority of Bolivia's specialty production, a remote stretch of steep ridges, heavy rainfall, and volcanic soil that sits under near-constant forest cover. Since the Cup of Excellence first arrived in 2004, these high-grown lots have earned a reputation for delicate, bright, aromatically sweet cups that reward careful sourcing.
This lot comes from Yulissa Chambi, a young producer whose family has farmed the Yungas for more than sixty years. She replanted the family ground in San Lorenzo in 2019 and immersed herself in the full chain, from picking to processing to the cupping table, eventually becoming Bolivia's national Aeropress champion. Her brother, Felix Chambi Garcia, handles export logistics through the San Juan cooperative. Both are trained Q graders, and that precision shows in the cup.
The CraftAnaerobic Rest, Traditional Washed Finish
The processing here is a measured hybrid. After harvest, ripe cherry is rinsed and rested in a sealed, oxygen-starved environment for 72 hours, a brief anaerobic maceration that builds aromatic depth before fermentation begins. The cherry is then depulped, fermented in open tanks, washed clean, and dried slowly on patios and raised beds. If you want the longer view on how rest and fermentation shape a cup, our guide to washed and natural processing walks through the trade-offs.
The washed finish keeps the cup clean and transparent while the anaerobic rest layers in fruit you would not expect from a straight washed coffee. We roast this Red Catuai to City+, a level that holds the lot's acidity and sweetness in balance without flattening its lift. The result reads bright and structured, with enough body to carry the finish.
The CupBright, Juicy, and Layered
The cup opens with orange and a snap of raspberry, then settles into black tea and a warm thread of ginger spice. Plum and dark fruit sit underneath, giving the brighter notes something to lean on. A velvety body softens the vibrant acidity, and the finish stays clean and long, the kind of complexity that keeps you reaching for the next sip.
