"Upon grinding, aromas of grapefruit, cranberry, yuzu, and black tea rise from the cup. On the palate, it starts with a fresh citrus-juice brightness led by grapefruit, followed by blackberry and blackcurrant fruit tones. The texture is smooth and full, finishing clean and lively."

This lot comes from Bolivia’s Santa Cruz department, specifically the Samaipata area, a landscape that sits where Andean foothills and greener valleys meet. The elevation band for this coffee is listed at 1,500–1,850 meters, giving the trees cooler nights and longer maturation windows that tend to support higher sweetness and steadier structure in the cup. Samaipata’s terrain is also known for sharp day-to-night shifts, which can help preserve aromatic clarity when harvesting is timed well. This is the kind of environment where careful processing choices can amplify nuance instead of masking it.

The Rodríguez family are among the key names behind Bolivia’s modern specialty revival, building a quality-first model that links farm work, processing control, and lot separation under the wider Fincas Los Rodríguez and Agricafe ecosystem. Their approach leans on disciplined cherry selection, clear traceability, and repeatable post-harvest protocols so each release reads as a distinct “lot” rather than a generic regional blend.

Bourbon is a classic Arabica variety prized for its rounded sweetness and balanced acidity, but it’s also a variety that clearly reflects farm decisions and post-harvest control. In Bolivia, it’s often selected for lots where the goal is to keep the cup elegant and layered without forcing intensity through heavy-handed processing. For the Rodríguez family’s style, Bourbon becomes a “signal” variety: it gives enough baseline sweetness to support a honey process while still leaving room for origin character to come through.

For a honey process, the work begins with selective picking, then depulping while intentionally keeping a measured amount of mucilage on the parchment. That sticky layer becomes the engine of the process: sugars and fruit material dry down on the bean, building density of sweetness and a silkier mouthfeel when managed cleanly. Drying is typically paced and monitored so the mucilage ferments gently rather than running hot, with frequent turning and protection from sudden weather shifts. Once stable, the coffee is rested in parchment before milling to let water activity and flavor compounds settle into a more coherent profile.

Variety : Red Bourbon
Altitude : 1710 masl
Process : Honey
Origin : Santa Cruz, Samaipata