Bolivia: Gregorio & Nancy Palli, Mosto Fermented Washed

Bright, juicy lime and blackcurrant hit first - the kind of vivid fruit clarity you get from mosto fermentation done well. Deep cocoa rounds out the finish, bringing everything into balance.

This Bolivian Caturra and Catuai coffee is a combination of lots harvested from two neighbouring farms. It was grown by Gregorio Palli and his daughter Nancy, on their farms facing each other over a hillside, before heading to the Agricafe Buena Vista mill to be processed using their Mosto Fermented Washed technique.

A Family Story 

When Gregorio was a young boy, his parents decided to move from their home in the Muñecas province of Bolivia (just north of Lake Titicaca) and travelled to the Caranavi area to provide him a better education. There was no school in their town, the roughly 100km relocation was worth it to give Gregorio a good start in life.  

Gregorio is now a full-time coffee producer, living on his 12-hectare farm with his wife Daisy and his two youngest children. In his free time, Gregorio enjoys going on walks around town with his kids, swimming in the river, and playing football. He has owned his coffee farm for 35 years now and the little ones love to help their dad out when they can. His brother Julio also runs his own coffee farm nearby. As does his daughter Nancy (one of his two grown-up children from his first marriage) who has graduated from playing on the farm to running her own, and whose coffee we’ve also got here. Clearly the move to Caranavi was a felicitous decision for Abuela y Abuelo Palli!  

The Best Bolivian Coffee 

The Caranavi province sits towards the western edge of Bolivia, on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountain range. Caranavi means "high place" in the Aymara language, one of the indigenous languages spoken in Bolivia. Caranavi province is in a transitional zone between the high Andes and the Amazon basin, it’s known for its lush vegetation and has been dubbed the "Coffee Capital of Bolivia" for its ideal growing conditions and over 13,000 hectares of plantations. Caranavi is the hub for amazing Bolivian specialty coffee. Caranavi town (the capital of the province) itself is too low altitude to grow coffee so the farms are all situated in the surrounding hills. The Palli family’s farms are dotted around the Copacabana colonia (the Bolivian term for small agricultural villages), as are some other Ozone favourites such as Vincent Palli and Martin Chirino. It’s safe to say the region produces some truly delicious coffees. 

Tigers and Gold 

Gregorio’s farm covers 12 hectares in total but only 2 hectares are currently used to grow coffee. It is named Volcán del Tigré, which translates to “Tiger’s Volcano” in English, although “tigré” is used locally to mean jaguars. Prior to becoming the well-tended specialty coffee farm it is today, the land used to be very overgrown with wild vegetation. Local people used to say that they saw smoke rising from one of the hills in the jungle, they thought it must be a volcano. Legend has it that when smoke comes from the hills, there's gold to be found there! Around the same time, nearby residents also noticed what appeared to be a footpath running through the land – this turned out to be a tiger's path, worn into the landscape by prowling big cats. To this day, Gregorio doesn't keep animals on the farm as they might become el tigrés next meal. He is looking to expand his coffee-growing area over more of the ten other hectares on his farm and is really excited about what the future at Volcán del Tigre holds.  

Nancy’s farm is a little smaller than her father’s, situated just across the valley on the opposite hillside. As is more common for Bolivian coffee farmers, her land doesn’t have a set name. That tends to only be the case with larger or more established farms, such as Gregorio’s, and Nancy has not been in the business as long as her dad. She hasn’t quite got to the naming level yet, but with coffee this good we’re sure it’s in her future. She lives on the farm with her family, where Roland had the great pleasure of meeting everyone on his last trip in 2025.

Tomorrow Looks Bright

Both farms are part of the Sol de la Mañana project, run by our Bolivian exporting partners Agricafe. Gregorio says he's already learned a great deal about sowing coffee and fighting coffee pests. He's had issues in the past with leaf rust, borer beetle, and mycena citricolor, but thanks to the program he's been able to get them all under control. When growing coffee on such a small plot of land, even a small portion of the coffee harvest being lost to pests can be devastating to a producer, so ensuring harvests remain unspoiled is vital to maintaining a stable income. Nancy is just starting out with her specialty coffee farming journey, so the guidance is incredibly useful. 

The program provides training in coffee agronomy to small producers. Meaning “The Sun of Tomorrow”, this program supports small local producers to increase their long-term efficiency and quality of production so that they can become sustainable. The Los Rodriguez farms play into this, with the varietals, techniques, and processing which they develop on the farms being passed on to the Sol De La Mañana producers. The producers get support in understanding not just coffee agronomy but cupping, the coffee markets, and much more. The coffee from these producers is delivered to Agricafe’s mill, Buena Vista, in the evening and processed there. Each lot is rigorously separated, measured and controlled to ensure the very best quality coffee.  

Juicy Processing For Juicy Tasting Notes 

The coffee for this lot came from a mix of Caturra and Catuai from both Nancy and Gregorio’s farms and was taken to the nearby Buena Vista mill to be processed with the Mosto Fermented Washed technique. Mosto is a Spanish word which describes fresh fruit juices - specifically before they are fermented. The same root gives the English word for this, used in wine-making - a Must.  

Starting with two batches of coffee, the first is processed using the regular Washed technique (depulped, fermented in a closed tank, rinsed, and taken to dry) and the liquids from that first fermentation are saved. With the pH and microbial levels closely monitored and managed, the next batch of coffee cherries then goes through its own processing – with the fermentation step carried out with the coffee beans submerged in this mosto juice. Once the fermentation has broken down any remaining pulp, this is also rinsed and dried. Utilising these fresh, already fermenting juices for the second coffee gives the process a kick start which seems to help develop the complex, juicy flavours in these coffees. 

To dive into Mosto coffee processing in more detail, check out our blog article here: https://ozonecoffee.co.uk/blogs/coffee-processing-explained/what-is-mosto-processing

• Country: Bolivia 
• Department: La Paz 
• Province: Caranavi 
• Colonia: Copacabana 
• Producer: Gregorio & Nancy Palli 
• Elevation: 1,400 - 1,650 m.a.s.l 
• Variety: Caturra & Catuai 
• Processing method: Mosto Fermented Washed 
• GPS: 15°48'56.8"S 67°31'40.9"W 

Cupping notes: Lime, blackcurrant, cocoa.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores 

• Clean Cup: 6/8 
• Sweetness: 6/8 
• Acidity: 6/8 
• Mouthfeel: 6/8 
• Flavour: 6.5/8 
• Aftertaste: 6.5/8 
• Balance: 6.5/8 
• Overall: 6.5/8 
• Correction: +36 
• Total: 87/100

If you'd like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post “What Do Coffee Cupping Scores Actually Mean?” and if you'd like to try cupping yourself, we've got a guide to that too! What is Coffee Cupping.

Medium dark
Through the gap and let this develop a little in the gap before pushing through to the edge of second as the roast finishes.