Los Rodriguez - Batian [25]

Producer: Rodriguez Family, La Llama farm

Region: Caranavi, Bolivia

Altitude: 1650 - 1700 masl

Variety: Batian

Process: Coco Natural

Roast Style: Light

Intended for: Filter

Cup Profile: Blackberry Jam, Manuka Honey, Raspberry

About the farm:

Pedro Rodriguez runs his farms with his daughter Daniela, and son Pablo under their company ‘Agricafe’. Their business is committed to preserving Bolivia’s coffee production, which had been in decline for the last couple of decades. Yields were falling due to outdated farming practices, lack of government support, as well as a wave of Coffee Leaf Rust disease in 2008 which devastated much of Latin America’s coffee farms. Many farmers opted stop growing coffee in favour of other crops. Concerned that Bolivian coffee production would cease altogether, Pedro started cultivating coffee on his own plantation in 2012. Later, the Rodriguez family created their ‘Sol de la Mañana’ programme, which helped other farms learn and adopt better farming techniques such as pruning, cherry picking and fertilizing. Their La Llama farm is their highest-altitude farm, named as a homage to a llama they encountered when they first looked to purchase the land.

Coffee Varietal & Processing:

Batian is a continuation on the history of genetic research conducted in Kenya. It is a composite variety, similar to ‘Ruiru 11’ - a precursor to Batian. Rume Sudan, K7, and Timor Hybrid varieties contribute Coffee Berry Disease resistance. SL28 & SL34 varieties are included for cup quality. The result is a disease-resistant, high-yielding variety, which some people say has a cup quality that has the potential to be just as good as the SLs. This is the first harvest of Batian from La Llama.

‘Coco Natural’ is a special process developed by the Rodriguez family which allows them to deal with some of the challenges that come with producing natural processed coffee. Traditional natural process requires specific climate conditions, as the coffee is dried in the sun - typically on raised beds. For this coffee, cherries spend at least 48 hours on drying beds before being transferred to static dryers that were originally designed for cocoa. Warm air is blown up through the coffee over a period of 50 hours, with the cherries being stirred at regular intervals.

Brew Guide:

Best enjoyed as a filter. Use APAX Lab JAMM and KONFLUX to highlight the silky, syrupy texture and high sweetness

Dose: 12g

Grind: Medium filter grind (24-26 comandante clicks)

Water: 200g. 90*. 40-80 ppm

Brewer: Orea 01, wave paper

00:00 Slowly pour 30 grams of water in a spiral, ensuring the whole bed is saturated. Avoid swirling or stirring at any point in the brew.

00:35 Another spiral pour to 110g. Use your kettle stream to ensure there’s no clumps of coffee or orange-brown foam floating on top

01:15 Centre-pour to 200g. You can use a faster flow-rate here.

Allow the bed to fully drain. Our total brew time is between 2:00 and 2:10.

Transparency:

Relationship: 1st Year

Quantity Purchased: 20 kg

Price Paid (£/kg): 24

Import Partner: DR Wakefield