Finca El Fuerte

Finca El Fuerte is one of Agricafe's farms in the Samaipata region. Agricafe is the processor and exporter we work with in Bolivia. They have five farms in Samaipata, in their Fincas Los Rodríguez project, on which they have planted the Caturra, Bourbon, Gesha and Java varietals. This is the seventh year we have had coffee from El Fuerte and the first time we have bought a naturally processed Java cultivar from this farm. The Samaipata region has great potential for specialty coffee but also has great challenges as the region deals with extreme temperature fluctuations; it has very cold nights which makes growing coffee potentially risky as frost damage is always a concern and it can get very hot during the day. However, it is these cold nights that help to extend the ripening season as the coffee fruit-sugars develop slowly which results in a nice balance in the coffee. For the last crop the Rodríguez family hired an enologist from Mendoza, Argentina to apply wine science to coffee. They have been concentrating on measuring coffee cherry sugar levels, processing cleanliness, and drying.