Carmela Aduviri (Natural) - Bolivia - 2024

This coffee was produced by Carmela Aduviri from Copacabana, a small and remote settlement located 180 kilometres from La Paz in the heart of the Caranavi province. This region is the epicentre for specialty coffee production in Bolivia, with incredibly high altitudes, rich soil, and wide daily temperature ranges providing the perfect conditions for exceptional coffee.

The inhabitants of Copacabana first began farming coffee around 35 years ago. Farms here are small and traditional. Almost all work is carried out by the farm's owners and their extended families, with a handful of temporary workers taken on to help out during harvest. 

Carmela has worked in coffee for forty years while raising eight children. Her farm, “Carmelita”, is about 2 hectares in size, and is located at an altitude of 1,400 to 1,550 metres above sea level. Today Carmela manages the farm with her son, and together they have worked incredibly hard on improving and producing the best quality coffee they can. They grow a mix of Caturra and Catuaí variety trees on their farm, which grow in a rich clay soil under the protective shade of native forest trees, whose heavy leaf fall creates a natural mulch fertiliser, and whose canopy provides an important habitat for the many bird and insect species in the area.

Coffee is placed into a floatation tank and all floaters removed. The whole cherries are dried on raised beds in the sun and turned regularly to ensure they are dried evenly. Drying is finished off at a very low temperature in a stationary drier. Coffee is then transported to the mill where the coffee is carefully screened again by machines and also by hand to remove any defects.

• Region: Copacabana
• Country: Bolivia
• Elevation: 1,600 - 1,650 masl
• Variety: Caturra
• Processing: Natural