Our first Bolivian coffee of the year always feels like an occasion. This is only our third season representing this country, and it remains one of our more challenging and rewarding origins to orchestrate, thanks largely to its sheer distance and the comparative novelty of its supply chain trajectory. Getting these coffees to Troy has entailed alignment among a range of partners in several countries, but the effort and the wait continue to prove themselves worthwhile. This year, our first launch comes from Carmelita Uduviri, who was also one among the power trio of contributors to last year’s exceptional Copacabana dry process selection. We relish opportunities to build upon a foundation like this and zoom closer into a group of producers, so we couldn’t be happier that Carmelita’s finally got her name right here on the menu.

And while we’re talking names, let’s unpack this one! Carmela, or “Carmelita” as she is typically called by folks who have worked with her, has been farming coffee for nearly five decades, raising eight children all the while. She primarily speaks Aymara—an indigenous population and language prevalent throughout Bolivia, Chile, and Peru—and we’ve seen her surname spelled a few different ways when presented to Spanish or English audiences: Urduvi, Aduviri, and Uduviri—the spelling we first saw upon selecting the coffee. We mention this not for the sake of covering tracks, but to convey the diversity and breadth of backgrounds present in Bolivia. Agricafé, the exporter and primary relationship conduit for all of our Bolivian coffees, only began working with Carmela within the past decade, after her small farm was ravaged by Roya. With the help of Agricafé’s Sol de la Mañana program, Carmela has since grown her farm in every sense of the word, and now consistently produces some of the crispest and most beloved coffees we’ve tasted from Bolivia.

When we first tasted this coffee, we were struck by its sheer structure and sweet symmetry. Though the flavor profile is not wildly unfamiliar, its clarity and balance pushed us to ensure that each of its descriptors boasted some alliterative charm. As for WHY her coffee has such exceptional clarity amidst plenty of delightful offerings from all over Bolivia, her longtime partners over in Sweden (the legendary Drop Coffee Roasters) have noted Carmelita always washes her cherries BEFORE they move along to Agricafé for the remainder of their processing. Though this may sound like a small step, we can attest that its tediousness makes it a true rarity, and that many likely feel it an unnecessary effort due to the coffee’s subsequent trajectory. For any among us who hand wash our dishes before sliding them into the dishwasher because WE SWEAR THEY DON’T CLEAN UP TOO GOOD if we don’t… let’s call Carmelita’s coffee some Big Picture Vindication!