Las Alasitas - BOLIVIA - Washed

This special micro-lot comes from Las Alasitas, a small farm owned by Pedro Rodríguez. Over the last decade, Rodríguez has worked tirelessly to build the production of, and market for, Bolivian specialty coffee, helping hundreds of local farmers recognise and realise the potential of their land and crops. Las Alasitas is located in the colony of Bolinda, which lies in a lush, steep mountain valley around 10 kilometres outside of the town of Caranavi. The colony of Bolinda was founded 52 years ago and was once known as ‘Bolivia Linda’ or ‘Beautiful Bolivia’. Over the years this name was shortened to Bolinda, and it is now one of the larger settlements in the area.

At Las Alasitas, Pedro hires pickers from the Villa Rosario community to carefully hand select the coffee during the harvest. These pickers are trained to collect only the very ripest cherries, and multiple passes are made through the farm throughout the harvest to ensure the coffee is picked at its prime. Selective picking is extremely important for special micro-lots like this one, to ensure the sweetest cup. The Rodríguez family has found that harvesting the very ripest (almost purple) cherries result in the most complexity and distinction in the coffee.

Pedro draws a lot of inspiration from the wine industry in his approach to coffee production, and is always innovating and trialling different processing techniques. This lot was processed with experimental techniques, part of the Rodriguez’ family’s long term strategy to achieve the greatest distinction and diversity in their special lots. As Pedro’s daughter, Daniela shares:

After inspected and weighed, the cherries for this lot were carefully sorted by weight using water, and floaters were removed. Following this, the coffee was placed on a conveyor belt and was disinfected, in a similar process used for wine grapes. Once depulped, the wet parchment was fermented in the family’s brand new, custom-built stainless steel tanks for 48 hours. The team made sure the lid remained shut for the full period of fermentation, to ensure no oxygen touched the coffee and that the punch-like, boozy aroma remained trapped inside.

The parchment was then was washed with fresh, clean water and carefully machine-dried for 105 hours using a ‘guardiola,’ a horizontal, rotating drum that gets rid of moisture by creating a warm, consistent flow of air around the coffee. Once the coffee was dry, it was transported to La Paz where it was rested before being milled at Agricafe’s dry mill, La Luna. At this state-of-the-art mill, the coffee was first hulled and sorted using machinery, and then by a team of workers who meticulously sorted the coffee again (this time by hand) under UV and natural light.