Origin guideSouth America
Bolivia Bolivian speciality coffee
Bolivia grows some of the highest coffee in the world, on steep slopes where the Andes drop towards the Amazon. It’s a small, hard-won harvest, but the best lots are clean, sweet and quietly brilliant.
The field notes
Bolivia at a glance
- Harvest
June to October
- Production
About 75,000 60 kg bags (2020/21)
- Main regions
Caranavi · Nor Yungas · Sud Yungas · Samaipata
- Common varietals
Typica · Caturra · Catuaí · Bourbon
Production figure: International Coffee Organization crop-year estimate for 2020/21 (data as at May 2021). Bolivia is not listed in the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service country tables.
When is it harvested, and how is it processed? See our guide to coffee harvesting and processing.
Chapter 01The story
History of coffee in Bolivia
Nobody is quite sure how coffee first reached Bolivia. The earliest records date from the 18th century, on estates in the Yungas, the steep, humid valleys north-east of La Paz.
By the late 1800s the crop was well established. One 1902 account describes coffee growing so readily in the Yungas that it seemed to plant itself, and reports a harvest of around 2.4 million pounds in 1885. In the early 1900s, much of what was exported went to neighbouring Chile.
For most of its history Bolivian coffee stayed small and local. That began to change in the second half of the 20th century, as world demand grew and new farms spread into Caranavi and La Asunta from around 1970.
Chapter 02Change
Land reform, coca and a shrinking harvest
Bolivia’s 1952 revolution and the agrarian reform that followed in 1953 broke up large estates and gave Indigenous families the right to own farmland. In the 1960s the state granted land in Caranavi to Indigenous farmers and former miners, many of whom planted coffee.
That is why Bolivian coffee is still grown almost entirely on small family plots, often just one to eight hectares. Production peaked in the early 1990s at around 150,000 bags a year, then fell sharply.
Low world prices in the early 2000s, leaf rust and difficult mountain roads all played a part. So did coca, which grows in the same valleys and can be harvested three or four times a year, against coffee’s single crop. Many families switched.
Chapter 03Today
Coffee in Bolivia today
Today Bolivia is a small producer, but a serious one for quality. Most coffee comes from the Yungas, especially Caranavi, grown by smallholders at roughly 1,200 to 2,000 metres. Cup of Excellence ran here from 2004 to 2009, and the national Taza Presidencial competition has since helped buyers find standout lots, including a Geisha that sold for $160 a pound in 2020.
Most Bolivian coffee is washed, then dried on raised beds. A handful of producers now also make naturals and carefully controlled fermentations in small batches.
In the cup, expect clean, balanced coffee with plenty of sweetness. Citrus notes like orange and mandarin are common, often alongside dried fruit, plum and a gentle, rounded body.
Taste the neighbours
Like Bolivian coffee? Try its neighbours
If you like Bolivian coffee, try Peru and Brazil. Like Bolivia, they grow arabica from familiar varieties such as Typica, Caturra and Catuaí, and lean towards sweet, balanced, easy-drinking cups.
