Bolivia: La Avanzada

Raspberry, blackberry and redcurrant layer up in the cup like a summer berry medley, bright and juicy from the first sip, before shifting to a sweet cooked apple finish.

The remote region of Irupana sits in the South Yungas province towards the most westerly edge of Bolivia, nestled among the Andes at the edge of the country. It's to the south of Caranavi, the largest coffee-growing region in Bolivia, and shares a similar verdant – albeit slightly drier – high-altitude terrain that makes it excellent for growing coffee. Farms here are small (around 5 hectares on average) and the area has a strong, proud tradition of coffee farming. It's also a place with deep historical roots: Irupana was home to Pedro Domingo Murillo, a late 18th-century revolutionary who led the 1809 uprising against Spanish rule in La Paz, before being defeated by royalist forces at the Battle of Irupana and executed in 1810. He's remembered today as one of Bolivia's great independence martyrs.

We've only sourced coffee from Irupana a handful of times previously. Coffee from more remote parts of Bolivia is often made up of contributions from multiple smallholders, which means we can't always trace it back to individual farms. Thanks to improved traceability and deeper collaboration with the Sol de la Mañana programme, we're now seeing more single-producer lots like this one from Jeivert – and Roland was particularly excited about that development for the 2025 harvest.

We actually bought a coffee from Jeivert back in 2016, but didn't see more coffee from him. This year, our friends at Agricafe (who run the mill and export the coffee for us) put some of his coffees on a blind cupping table and they really jumped out for all of us!

The town of Irupana is at about 1,800 metres above sea level and has a drier microclimate than Caranavi. The coffee farms around the town are on the hills which surround it and reach up to 2, 000 metres above sea level - it's a very traditional coffee growing area, full of very small producers who sell their coffee as cherry in the town to traders. The varietals grown in the area are traditional ones - Caturra, Catuai and Typica.

Jeivert is a 2nd generation coffee producer and was part of the Irupana Cooperativo. This large coffee co-operative bought and processed nearly all the coffee in Irupana in 2016 - this was how we came to get his coffee back then! In 2017, Jeivert had been learning a lot at the Cooperative but was convinced there was a better way to get the best results (and value) from the great coffees produced in the region, so he set up his own micro-mill to process his coffee. This quickly showed itself to be a good choice, with the Irupana Cooperativo closing in 2019 as the number of local producers declined (many moving to Coca leaf production).

Jeivert has 5 Hectares of coffee at his farm, La Avanzada. Meaning "The Advance". this is named because Irupana was the home of Pedro Domingo Murillo, a 18th Century figure who is credited as an early revolutionary and patriot for the independence movement of Bolivia from Spanish rule.

Jeivert also built a special storage area for controlled drying of the coffee and has experimented with Washed and Honey processing. The feedback from Daniela Rodriguez of Agricafe was that the Honey was the way forward - both for great cupping results and because it's not such a common or popular processing style in Bolivia as Washed.

As well as processing his own coffee, Jeivert has a bigger business now buying coffee from other local producers. His partner in this is his friend Grover, who also has a 2 hectare farm.

• Country: Bolivia
• Department: La Paz
• Region: Yungas
• Province: Caranavi
• Town: Irupana town
  
• Producers: Jeivert Pañuni
• Farm: La Avanzada
• Altitude: 1,500–1,750 m.a.s.l.
• Varietal: Typica, Caturra and Catuai
  
• Processing method: Honey

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.

Cupping Notes: Juicy, mango, lychee, papaya.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean Cup: 6.5/8
• Sweetness: 7/8
• Acidity: 6.5/8
• Mouthfeel: 6.5/8
• Flavour: 6.5/8
• Aftertaste: 6/8
• Balance: 6.5/8
• Overall: 7.5/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 89/100

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?"