Jeivert Pañuni and La Avanzada: A New Chapter in Bolivian Specialty Coffee
In the steep, cloud-wrapped hills surrounding Irupana – a small town in Bolivia's Sud Yungas province – Jeivert Pañuni is doing something quietly radical. On his five-hectare farm, La Avanzada, he's producing honey-processed specialty coffee at around 1,800 metres above sea level, running his own micro-mill, and building a small supply chain that's beginning to draw in his neighbours. In a region where the default has long been to sell cherry to traders in town and move on, that's no small thing.
A Region With Deep Roots
Irupana sits towards the most westerly edge of Bolivia's coffee-growing territory, south of Caranavi – the country's dominant growing region – and shares its dramatic Andean terrain: high altitude, rich soils, and the kind of slow cherry maturation that tends to produce complex, layered cups. The microclimate here is a touch drier than Caranavi, which shapes both the character of the coffee and the particular challenges of processing it. Farms are small, averaging around five hectares, and the community that works them is tight-knit – around 1,800 people live locally.
The region also carries significant historical weight. Irupana was home to Pedro Domingo Murillo, a late 18th-century revolutionary who led the 1809 uprising against Spanish colonial rule in La Paz. When royalist forces were sent to crush the rebellion, it was at the Battle of Irupana – fought in November 1809 – that Murillo was defeated and later captured. He was executed on 29 January 1810, and is remembered today as one of Bolivia's great independence martyrs, a man who, in his own words, lit a flame that no one could extinguish. That history is very much alive here. It's no coincidence that Jeivert named his farm La Avanzada – The Advance – in that spirit.
Bolivia's coffee history is tied closely to the Yungas as a whole. Coffee was introduced to the region in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and though production remained limited for much of that period, the Yungas today accounts for around 95% of all Bolivian coffee. Most farms were established or expanded following the country's Agrarian Revolution in the 1950s, when land was redistributed to indigenous farmers and miners, breaking up larger estates into the smallholdings that now characterise the landscape. It's a sector that has always punched above its weight in terms of quality – but one that has faced persistent structural challenges, not least the ongoing draw of coca cultivation, which in many parts of the Yungas remains more immediately profitable than coffee.
From Co-operative to Independence
Jeivert is a second-generation producer. His father, Jaime Pañuni Arce, spent most of his working life farming the land around Irupana, and it's that inheritance – both the knowledge and the ground itself – that Jeivert has built on. He began his journey in specialty coffee through the Irupana Cooperativo, a large co-operative that once processed nearly all the coffee in the area. It was through the co-op that we first encountered his coffee, back in 2016.
By 2017, Jeivert had learned a great deal working within that system – but he'd also become convinced there was a better way to get the best results from the area's coffees, both in terms of quality and the value returned to individual producers. So he set up his own micro-mill to process his coffee independently. It was a bold move, and it proved to be the right one. The Irupana Cooperativo closed in 2019 as the number of local producers declined, many switching to coca leaf production. Jeivert's early investment in infrastructure and quality meant he was already on a different path.
His wet mill is modest by any commercial standard – the equivalent of the small family micro-mills you find across Costa Rica – but it's purpose-built and thoughtfully designed. He constructed a dedicated brick drying room with raised beds inside, protecting the coffee from the elements while maintaining good airflow throughout the drying process. It's exactly the kind of small-scale investment that makes a disproportionate difference to cup quality, and it's given him the autonomy to experiment with different processing methods on his own terms.
The Honey Decision
Honey processing occupies a fascinating middle ground in specialty coffee. Unlike washed processing – where the outer skin and mucilage are removed before drying, producing clean, bright, terroir-focused cups – honey processing leaves some or all of the mucilage (the sticky, sugar-rich layer surrounding the bean) intact during drying. As the beans dry, that mucilage ferments gently, contributing sweetness, body, and a fruit complexity that sits somewhere between a washed and a natural. The amount of mucilage retained determines the style: white and yellow honeys retain less and tend toward cleaner, brighter profiles; red and black honeys retain more, producing richer, fuller-bodied cups with more pronounced fruit character.
Bolivia's coffee market has historically been dominated by washed lots, which makes honey processing here genuinely unusual. Jeivert experimented with both methods, and it was Daniela Rodriguez of Agricafe who pushed him firmly in the honey direction – both for the exceptional cup quality it produces from Irupana's fruit and because its relative rarity in Bolivia gives it a real point of difference. The results have consistently backed that recommendation up. His brick drying room and raised beds – designed to protect coffee from the Yungas humidity while maintaining airflow – turn out to be particularly well-suited to the slower, more attentive drying that good honey processing requires.
Our Relationship, and the Role of Sol de la Mañana
We've sourced coffee from the Irupana area a handful of times over the years, but it's historically been difficult to trace those lots back to individual farms. Coffee from more remote parts of Bolivia often arrives as blended contributions from multiple smallholders, processed together and exported as a single lot – no name attached, no story to tell.
That's changing, thanks in large part to the Sol de la Mañana programme run by Agricafe, the Rodriguez family-owned company that has become one of the most important forces in Bolivian specialty coffee. Launched in 2013, Sol de la Mañana functions like a seven-year school for producers, guiding smallholders through every stage of the process – from setting up nurseries and managing harvests to pest prevention, pruning, and even financial management. It now supports over 100 farms across the Yungas, and has helped transform per-hectare yields for many participants while raising the traceability and quality of the coffees they produce.
Most of the producers in the Sol de la Mañana network are centred around Caranavi, where Agricafe's Buena Vista mill can process their cherry. Irupana is about four hours' drive away – too far to deliver fresh cherry and maintain quality – which is precisely why Jeivert's independent micro-mill is so important. It means the infrastructure exists to process his coffee to the standard required for single-producer traceability, even from this more remote corner of the Yungas. Thanks to deeper collaboration with Agricafe and improved traceability across their network, we're now able to buy and name-check individual lots like Jeivert's – something our green buyer Roland described as a significant step forward, not just for transparency, but for properly recognising the skill and dedication of producers whose work has for too long gone unnamed.
Grover, and a Growing Community
Jeivert's partner in the mill operation is his friend Grover Machaca, who farms a two-hectare plot nearby and brings his cherry to La Avanzada for processing. The partnership runs deeper than logistics. Grover has become a key support in Jeivert's growing operation, which now also buys cherry from other neighbouring producers, creating a small but meaningful supply chain in a part of the Yungas where that kind of infrastructure has rarely existed. In a region where economic instability and the pull of coca have steadily reduced the number of coffee producers over the past decade, the fact that Jeivert's mill is drawing more people in rather than watching them leave is worth noting.
We're proud to offer Grover's coffee as a separate lot this year – you can grab a bag to brew side by side with Jeivert's here. The two coffees share a processing environment but come from different farms, elevations, and plants, and the contrast between them is a genuinely interesting way into the terroir of Irupana.
What's in the Cup
Jeivert's honey lots consistently deliver vivid, fruit-forward cups that reflect both the character of Irupana's high-altitude growing conditions and his own careful approach to processing. The combination of slow cherry maturation at elevation, the particular dryness of the local microclimate, and the controlled drying environment he's built tends to produce coffees with bright berry-driven acidity, good sweetness, and a clean, round finish – the hallmarks of honey processing done well.
For the specific tasting notes on this year's harvest, head to the product page.
Why This Coffee Matters
Bolivia exports relatively little coffee – around 22,000 bags a year at last count, a fraction of what neighbouring countries produce – and the specialty end of that market is smaller still. Getting coffee out of somewhere as remote as Irupana, processed to the standard required for specialty buyers to take notice, involves overcoming logistical challenges that would defeat most producers before they got started. The journey from La Avanzada to a roastery in the UK involves crossing the Andes at over 4,000 metres before reaching the port of Arica on Chile's coast. Every bag that arrives is, in that sense, a minor miracle of commitment and craft.
Jeivert Pañuni's story isn't one of overnight success or dramatic transformation. It's something quieter and more durable: a producer who paid close attention, made smart decisions early, built the right infrastructure, and kept the faith in a region where many of his peers had moved on. The farm is called La Avanzada for a reason. He's advancing – and the coffee in your cup is the proof.
