An Award-Winning Bolivian Coffee
by Ryan Seibold aka p_beri, Production Roaster

Our new favorite coffee is an award winning selection from the high altitudes of Bolivia -- a seasonal and in limited quantity. By seasonal we mean that it's available for a season only, maybe even only a month. This amazing bean takes an impressive journey along the "road of death*," which traverses 11,000 feet into Caranavi, the country's coffee growing mecca where about 80% of Bolivia's coffee is produced. Apparently Bolivian farmers call this the "road of life" because it connects them to the market. In 2006, Cooperative Coffee, along with other Fair Trade allies, held a cupping competition in Bolivia. The Fair Trade Coffee Cupping Competition and Exchange, in which some 132 samples were set before a group of expert cuppers,* was a response to US AID pulling funding out of Bolivia in 2006 for development projects such as the Cup of Excellence competition –- unless tied to coca eradication. The coffee we are roasting placed 3rd overall which means it should be a really great cup. We received this coffee with much anticipation and our roaster minds set to work to come up with the best way to showcase this great coffee.

Roasting coffee is a process of revealing what the coffee has to offer. Our process of finding the best way to roast involves trying the coffee at different roast levels, and so during our first experimental batch we pulled samples out as the coffee roasted, from a very light cinnamon roast to a medium level roast (we decided roasting it dark would hide any characteristics that made this coffee award winning). And so we cupped the coffee and our hypothesis of keeping it light was right. The basic idea of roasting light is that as roasters we are not flexing our muscles over the bean; therefore aspects of darker roasts will be absent, such as: nuances or strong flavors that are toasty, nutty, smoky, meaty, and/or chocolate. The resulting coffee is very fruity and layered. It tastes better the longer as it sits in your cup (a sign of a great coffee) and pleasantly lingers on your palate. This coffee offers a mix of dried apricot, peach and apple flavors, and is punctuated by citrus and winey aspects that give the coffee its structure and long-lasting taste attributes. You may even taste a Jolly Rancher tang to it. And finally, an added floral quality makes this coffee great, like a great single-source honey or a wine.

It's an adventure roasting coffee light because there can be so much complexity and variation when tasting different roasts. So it's great knowing that at the end of the road our palates will tell us the way to roast. Hope you enjoy our latest offering! Get it while it lasts.

*see http://coopcoffees.com/committees/green/
projects/bolivia-ft-quality-competition for more details on the Fair Trade cupping competition held in 2006.

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