Los Rodriguez - Caturra

Microlot (87-89 points)

Los Rodrugiez, Santa Cruz, Bolivia – Coco Natural Caturra

– “A complex and balanced experimental lot produced by the Rodriguez family in the highlands of Samaipata”. 

What to expect in the cup

Boysenberry, plum, vanilla. Amazingly sweet and juicy cup profile with vibrant plum wine like acidity and perfect structure.

£16.00£56.00

This 100% Caturra lot comes from a new farm called Finca La Llama. At La Llama, Pedro hires pickers from the Villa Rosario community to carefully handpick the coffee during the harvest. These pickers are trained to select only the very ripest cherries, and multiple passes are made through the farm throughout the harvest to ensure the coffee is picked at its prime. Selective picking is always very important and is particularly important for naturally processed lots like this one, to ensure a very sweet and clean cup. The Rodriguez family has found that the very ripest (almost purple) cherries provide the best cup. After being picked and weighed, this coffee was carefully washed and laid out to dry on raised African beds and turned every hour. After about one week on the raised beds, the coffee was then placed in a coco dryer. We have not seen coco dryers used in coffee before, however, Pedro is always innovating and trialling different processing techniques. He has found that these driers help to dry the coffee slowly and consistently. The coffee sits in the large steel vats for around 35 hours at temperatures no higher than 40˚C, and turned every 30 minutes. Once the coffee was dry, it was transported to La Paz where it was rested, and then milled at Agricafe’s dry mill, La Luna. At this state-of-the-art mill, coffee is meticulously hulled and sorted using machinery, and is also sorted carefully by hand under UV and natural light.
The Rodriguez family’s approach to coffee production has been extremely methodical, innovative and scientific. Along the way, they consulted leading specialty coffee agronomists from around the world to help them produce exceptional coffee and build sustainable and healthy farms. A wide range of varieties have been trialed, along with different farming techniques, to optimise quality and output. They have carefully documented their findings at every step of the way and continue to innovate and invest in improvements to produce the very best quality coffee they can. The farms are vibrant, luscious and healthy, and produce exceptional quality and yields. This 100% Caturra comes from a new farm called Finca La Llama. This farm has only been in harvest since 2017, and its production is still small but of exceptional quality. The small ten-hectare farm is located in the settlement of Villa Rosario, which lies in a lush, steep mountain valley just outside of the town of Caranavi. La Llama is owned by the Rodriguez family, who also own a business called Agricafe, which produces coffee from its own farms and also sources quality micro-lots from small producers in the Yungas region. Today Agricafe has 12 farms and around 130 hectares of coffee under the banner of ‘Fincas Los Rodriguez’. Seven of these are in Caranavi, in the department of La Paz, and the remaining five are in Samaipata, in the department of Santa Cruz in Bolivia’s east.