Los Rodríguez Family Washed
Interesting and distinct, with strawberry jam, redcurrant and sweet almond liqueur balanced by dark chocolate and rooibos tea.
This 100% Caturra lot is made up of coffee from two Fincas Los Rodríguez farms in Samaipata: El Fuerte and Floripondio. Both properties are owned and managed by the intrepid Pedro Rodríguez and his family, who have spent the last decade tirelessly working to build production and expand the market for Bolivian specialty coffee, helping hundreds of local farmers recognise and realise the potential of their land and crop.
Pedro began his journey in coffee by working with small producers in Caranavi, Bolivia’s most well-known coffee-growing region, building a wet mill to process their coffee and educating them on the best agricultural practices to follow. He also started to process small microlots from each of the producers they sourced from, and because of the unique combination of varieties planted, rich soil and incredibly high elevations, the results were outstanding.
However, despite increased international recognition for its quality, coffee production in Bolivia began to rapidly decline over a very short period of time for many reasons. Some farmers switched to coca – grown for the drug trade and illegal to mass produce in Caranavi – because it provided them with a high year-round income. For those still in coffee, their yields were also declining as a result of ageing coffee plantations, unsophisticated farming techniques, and leaf rust. The combination of these factors resulted in the nation’s coffee production declining by more than half.
In 2012, as leaf rust started to obliterate the production in many small farms, Pedro and his family began to invest in their own plantations, fearing that coffee production in Bolivia would disappear completely. This, they recognised was critical in order to guarantee a minimum level of supply and thus ensure the future sustainability of their business. They acquired land in Caranavi, near their Buena Vista mill and planted their first farm, Finca La Linda. “This is where the dream started,” Pedro says.
The family’s approach to coffee production has been extremely methodical, innovative and scientific. Along the way, they consulted with leading specialty coffee agronomists from around the world to help them produce exceptional coffee and build sustainable and healthy farms. A wide range of varieties has been trialled, along with different farming techniques to optimise quality and output. They have carefully documented their findings at every step of the way, and continue to innovate and invest in improvements to produce the very best quality coffee they can.
The Rodríguez farms are some of the most organised and beautiful we have come across. Coffee is well spaced in neat rows and meticulously organised by variety, making picking and lot separation much easier to manage than on more traditional farms in the region. The farms are vibrant, luscious and healthy, and produce exceptional quality and yields.
Pedro and his family have invested a lot of time and effort into trying to make each of their plantations a ‘model’ farm that other producers in the area can learn from. Their learnings have also been shared with local producers through a training program that the family has developed called Sol de la Mañana. Head here to learn more about this wonderful program, and here to learn more about the incredible work the Rodríguez family and Agricafe are doing in Bolivia.
ABOUT EL FUERTE
El Fuerte was the first of the four farms the Rodríguez family planted in Samaipata. The site was chosen following consultation with a specialist agronomist, who recognised its unique microclimate and rich, fertile soils. The property is 19.4 hectares in size and sits at 1,526 metres above sea level. Although El Fuerte mostly produces Caturra, Jair and Pedro have trialed several varieties on this farm, including Gesha, Java, SL28, Batian and Bourbon. The farm is found about 20km east of the town of Samaipata on the southern edge of the Amboro National Park, which is characterised by great diversity and biological richness, with plentiful forests, waterfalls and exotic birds. The park also protects El Fuerte from strong winds and high temperatures, and the waterways in the valley help regulate the lower temperatures and keep frost away.
For years, the farm has been managed by Jair Gonzales, who also oversees production at Agricafe’s wet mill in Samaipata. An agronomist by trade, Jair has worked with the Rodríguez family since 2013. Having been a part of Agricafe’s operations for more than ten years, Jair has a deep understanding of how the Rodríguezes work, and spends much of the off-season assisting the family in Caranavi and in their newly planted farms in Mexico and Dominican Republic.
To the east of the city of Samaipata are the ruins of the ancient ceremonial site of El Fuerte de Samaipata. The fort is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site, unique in that it represents the legacies of Inca, Spanish and Chanè cultures and is one of Samaipata’s main attractions. Finca El Fuerte is named after the culturally significant site, as it serves as the Rodríguez family’s headquarters in the region.
ABOUT FLORIPONDIO
Floripondio gets its name from the Floripondio flowers (commonly known as Angel’s Trumpet in English) that are native to the area and grow throughout the farm. The flower is thought to possess some hallucinogenic properties, and legend has it that as soon as you lay down beneath a Floripondio tree you start dreaming. This is apt, as the natural scenery at Floripondio is breathtakingly beautiful and can at times, seem like something out of a dream. This 47 hectare farm (29 of which are planted with coffee) is found at a staggering 1,710 meters above sea level. It has two breathtaking viewpoints: one over the spectacular Andes mountain ranges, and another over the Amboró National Park, which is considered as having some of the world’s greatest biodiversity of flora and fauna. This protected park is located west of the department of Santa Cruz, in the so-called “Codo de los Andes”, where the western mountain range changes course to the south.
Floripondio’s high elevation, tropical microclimate and distinct soil profile, made it the ideal place for the Rodríguez family to establish their variety nursery and garden. To date, they have planted and trialled over 60 varieties at the farm, with the objective to work out which are best suited to the land and this particular latitude and elevation. On our most recent visit to the farm, Pedro Pablo Rodríguez told us their nursery was the most important part of their investment in the region. The young coffee trees spend nine months in bags, and then planted on the variety garden so that roots can deepen and strengthen. Planting is usually done in November, once the harvest has wrapped up, and by each tree’s second year, Agricafe expect a small production available.
Floripondio’s variety garden is large — every year, one to two hectares of it are devoted to planting new varieties. Their goal is to consistently increase volume for the most productive three to four varieties, keeping up to two hectares of land exclusively for varieties like Gesha, Batian and SL34. Every year, some 30% of the farm is pruned, as this promotes stronger growth and keeps trees healthy. Because weather conditions in Samaipata have become more challenging over the years, the Rodríguez family have shrunk their total output from Floripondio, prioritising rarer coffee varieties that produce an exquisite cup and command higher prices as a result.
ABOUT SAMAIPATA
Samaipata is a relatively new coffee growing region located in the department of Santa Cruz, at the foot of the Bolivian Andes. The Rodríguez family first established exporting company Agricafe Bolivia along with eight farms and a wet mill in the traditional coffee growing region of Caranavi. In 2012, they expanded to Samaipata, which is historically known for producing food crops like fruit and vegetables.
This was risky move – coffee had never been planted here before – but Pedro recognised the region had the right conditions to produce exceptional quality coffee, with high elevations, nutrient-rich soil and a similar climate to Caranavi’s (with the main difference being that Samaipata is drier and less tropical). After their success in growing exceptional coffee at their first farm in the region, El Fuerte, the Rodríguez family have continued investing more heavily in Samaipata, planting three more farms and building a wet mill to process the coffees grown here.
Culturally, Samaipata is largely Quechua. At one point, the city was the southernmost point of the Incan empire, with some 15% of the population still mainly speaking a Quechua dialect. The town’s name translates to ‘Rest of the Heights,’ and it is a small, picturesque town. A scenic road that runs along a beautiful river leads to the town centre, attracting Bolivians and tourists alike. The valley that surrounds it ranges between 1,600-1,800 meters above sea level, and has a fairly extreme climate. During the day the temperature is 25-30°C, dropping to as low as to 8-10°C during the night. This slows down the ripening of the coffee cherries, allowing the sugars of the fruit to concentrate in the flesh and bean, which in turn helps produce an incredibly sweet and complex coffee.
HOW THIS COFFEE WAS PROCESSED
At all of the Rodríguez farms, Pedro hires pickers that are trained to select 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. The Rodríguez family has found that the very ripest (almost purple) cherries provide the best cup.
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: “We’re keeping a registry of all the data we’re compiling, to use in the coming seasons. It includes information on the types of tanks used, bacteria and yeast activity, ambient temperature and weather conditions… we’re working hard to identify the ideal processing conditions for each variety and farm.” Watch the video below, to see how this coffee was processed:
After being inspected and weighed, cherries were carefully sorted by weight using water, and floaters were removed. Following this, the coffee was disinfected, in a similar process used for wine grapes, pulped, and left to ferment in a polyurethane tank for 48 hours. The team at El Fuerte made sure the lid remained shut for the full period of fermentation, to ensure no oxygen touched the cherries and that the punch-like, boozy aroma remained trapped inside. The wet parchment was then washed with fresh, clean water and carefully machine-dried for 120 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. The mill is one of the cleanest and most impressive we have seen – you can read more about it here.
