Green melon, brown sugar, honey
Pedro Flores’ farm is in the small colonia of Villa Rosario, a short drive east of Caranavi. He’s part of the Sol De La Mañana project, run by the Rodriguez family, that provides training in coffee agronomy to small producers. Through this, he’s learnt to replant his land and manage his coffee plants more methodically to get both quality and consistency.
To ensure only the very ripest coffee cherries are picked, it's not uncommon for producers in the SDLM program to do 7 or 8 harvesting passes across their plants, many more than producers in other parts of the world do. This is very labour intensive and yields smaller amounts each pass, but ensures great quality. The downside is that for each delivery of cherries from the SLDM producers in Bolinda, the lots are often too tiny to process separately and so instead, deliveries from all the producers are combined and processed together.
The traditional way to process coffee in Bolivia is via the Washed method, but the Los Rodriguez team have innovated and added an Anaerobic Fermentation stage which is done in stainless steel fermentation vessels. More commonly seen in breweries or wineries, these allow the absolute highest level of control in managing this process and enable the team to deliver incredibly consistent quality. Supported by the onsite lab and resident microbiologist, samples are taken and measured daily to monitor the fermentation.
Softly sweet and clean green melon kicks things off, with white grape coming in as it cools. A delicate honey note runs through it and shifts into a heavier brown sugar on the finish.
- Country: Bolivia
- Region: Yungas
- Municipality: Caranavi
- Town: Copacabana
- Farm: Villa Rosario
- Altitude: 1,500 m.a.s.l.
- Producer: Pedro Flores
- Varietal: Caturra & Catuai
- Processing: Anaerobic Washed
Cupping notes: Green melon, brown sugar, honey.
Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores
- Clean Cup: (1-8): 6.5
- Sweetness: (1-8): 6.5
- Acidity: (1-8): 6.5
- Mouthfeel: (1-8): 6
- Flavour: (1-8): 6.5
- Aftertaste: (1-8): 6
- Balance: (1-8): 6.5
- Overall: (1-8): 6.5
- Correction:(+36): +36
- Total (max 100): 87
Roast Information
Medium-dark - just up to the start of second, drop this with the very first pops of it, no more.