Bolivia Roxana Chambi

This is our very first coffee from Bolivia, and we are excited to share it with you. To source it, we partnered with the team at Café Imports and Felix Chambi, one of the pioneers of Bolivia’s specialty coffee movement. Felix operates Lata 16, the country’s only SCA-certified sensory laboratory, and has played a key role in elevating the quality and visibility of Bolivian coffee.

We cupped several coffees from across the La Paz Department, focusing on lots from the municipalities of La Asunta and Caranavi. After tasting a wide range of fine coffees, we selected this lot from producer Roxana Chambi.

San Lorenzo is a coffee farm owned and operated by Roxana Chambi in the Caranavi region of the La Paz Department, Bolivia. Established in 2019, the farm covers five hectares at an elevation of approximately 1,550 meters above sea level. The coffee cherries are carefully handpicked at peak ripeness and then sun-dried until they reach the optimal moisture content. The result is a coffee that clearly reflects the unique character of its origin.

La Paz is Bolivia’s most renowned coffee-growing region. Located in the country’s northwest and bordering Peru, it is characterized by dramatic Andean landscapes, fertile valleys, and abundant water resources. The region’s diverse microclimates create ideal conditions for coffee cultivation, and many producers are investing in the knowledge, infrastructure, and processing techniques needed to produce outstanding specialty coffees.

Bolivia is steadily emerging as one of South America’s most exciting origins for fine coffee. The future looks bright, and we are happy that this coffee marks the beginning of our journey there.

Processing in Bolivia is similar in practice to that of many specialty producers in Colombia, with many smallholder farmers investing in their own processing infrastructure. For washed coffees, the cherries are sorted, depulped, fermented, and then dried at the farm for around two weeks.

Roxana grows Catuai, a variety developed by the Instituto Agronômico de Campinas in Brazil. It is a cross between Caturra and Mundo Novo and was officially released in 1972.