Bolivia: La Llama, SL-28, Coco Natural

When hot, this super juicy coffee is all purple - blackcurrant and black grape candy flavours at the fore - but that quickly shifts as a huge swell of pineapple juice takes over. Big, bold punches of flavour but also flawlessly elegant.

If you've tried our coffees from La Llama before, you'll know we're long-time friends with the Rodriguez family – the trio responsible for pretty much everything exciting happening in Bolivian specialty coffee right now. This particular lot showcases SL-28, a variety more commonly associated with East African coffee but one that's proving itself exceptionally well-suited to Bolivia's high-altitude terrain.

The Rodriguez family have always approached La Llama as something of an experimental playground. Where other farmers might play it safe with established local varieties, Pedro and his children have planted 8 different varietals at La Llama, everything from Geisha to Java to Ethiosar and Batian. SL-28 fits perfectly into this spirit of trial and innovation – it's a variety that rewards patience and altitude with cups of real complexity.

Harvested by workers from the local Villa Rosario community and transported in aerated wine crates to protect the cherries, this lot was processed using Agricafe's signature 'Coco Natural' method at the Buena Vista wet mill in Caranavi. It's a technique born out of necessity – natural processing in Bolivia's humid climate is notoriously tricky, but the Rodriguez family saw the value in diversifying their flavour profiles and invested heavily in making it work. The result is a small-batch approach that combines meticulous cherry selection, careful sun-drying, and their ingenious stationary box dryers to produce naturals with exceptional clarity and sweetness.

Our green buyer Roland scored this lot an exceptional 92 points - with top marks (8/8) for clean cup and overall impression, and standout scores (7/8) for sweetness and acidity. It's an exceptional quality coffee from a long-term sourcing relationship we're really proud to share with you, the perfect fruity brew to bring some caffeinated sunshine to your December. We only have 20kg of this amazing coffee, which means about 80 x 220g bags, so make sure to grab some while you can! 

SL-28's journey to Bolivia is a story of coffee's global cross-pollination. The variety was first identified in 1931 when A.D. Trench, senior coffee officer at Kenya's Scott Agricultural Laboratories, spotted a drought-resistant tree in the Moduli district of Tanganyika (now Tanzania). Seed was collected, catalogued as SL-28 in 1935, and quickly became the darling of East African specialty production – prized for exceptional cup quality, remarkable drought tolerance, and an unusual rusticity that allows neglected trees to bounce back decades later. It's genetically related to Bourbon, which explains its tendency toward bright acidity, berry-driven sweetness, and complex fruit character.

While SL-28 has spread from Kenya to Uganda, Malawi, and pockets of Central and South America, finding it in Bolivia remains genuinely rare. The Rodriguez family sourced their plants through a network of connections with advanced growers across the continent – a necessary effort given Bolivia's lack of centralised coffee infrastructure. At La Llama's altitude of 1,650–1,700 metres, the variety expresses itself beautifully: slow cherry maturation allows sugars to develop fully, while the cool nights and mineral-rich soil amplify its inherent complexity.

The 'Coco Natural' process is where things get interesting. Natural processing isn't common in Bolivia – the humid conditions around Caranavi make extended sun-drying a genuine challenge. But the Rodriguez family recognised that naturals and honeys could dramatically expand the range of flavours coming out of their farms, so they invested time, money, and considerable ingenuity into developing a method that would work in their climate.

Here's how it works. First, only the ripest cherries are selected – ripeness is checked both by colour and by measuring the sugar content of the fruit. Because the process can only handle small batches at a time, there's real incentive to be ruthless at this stage. After checking weather reports to ensure a dry spell, the cherries are laid out on raised beds in the sun for between one and three days, depending on conditions. During this initial drying, the coffee is turned every thirty minutes to ensure even exposure, and any under or over-ripe cherries are picked out by hand. If needed, the cherries may be moved into UV-blocking greenhouses to finish this stage.

From there, the coffee moves into what the Rodriguez family call their 'stationary box' dryers – large steel containers with warm air vented gently through the bottom. Pedro originally discovered these dryers during his time in peanut production, and they've become central to the Coco Natural method. The temperature never exceeds 40°C, and the cherries are turned every hour to maintain even drying. After 40 to 50 hours in the stationary dryers, the coffee reaches a stable moisture level around 11.5%, halting fermentation and locking in those concentrated fruit flavours.

Once dry, the coffee travels to La Paz for resting before final processing at Agricafe's La Luna dry mill – a facility sitting at a staggering 3,800 metres above sea level. Here, beans are hulled and sorted using both machinery and a team who meticulously inspect under UV and natural light. It's painstaking work, but the results speak for themselves.

• Country: Bolivia
• Region: Los Yungas
• Province: Caranavi
  
• Farm: La Llama
• Owners: Rodriguez family
• Altitude: 1,650-1,700 m.a.s.l.
• Varieties Grown: Java (Longberry), Geisha Hawaii, Yellow Caturra, SL-28, SL-34, Bourbon, Batian and Ethiosar
• Processing method: Coco Natural
  

Tasting notes: Blackcurrant candy, black grape, pineapple juice.

Cup of Excellence Scores

• Clean cup: 8/8
• Sweetness: 7/8
• Acidity: 7/8
• Mouthfeel: 6.5/8
• Flavour: 7/8
• Aftertaste: 6/8
• Balance: 6.5/8
• Overall: 8/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 92/100

Medium

Take this coffee through the gap between cracks and let it develop a little while in the gap, before finishing the roast just before it gets to second crack.