Cafés in Bolivia La Paz

From hacienda crop to smallholder coffee

Bolivia's first coffee grew on haciendas in the Yungas valleys, and it was drunk by the landowners.⁴⁶ Production was tiny, and the yanaconas, the servants and farmhands bound to the estate, had no access to it.⁶ By 1900 La Paz had a machine to roast and grind coffee, which was sold in home-made tins.¹²

Growing expanded after 1950, when a crisis in the coca market and the agrarian reform ended the landlord system and Yungas peasants gained land of their own.⁶ The 1953 reform redistributed parcels of 1.5 to 8 hectares, largely to Indigenous families.⁷ In the 1970s, as world consumption rose, planting spread through Caranavi and La Asunta.⁴

Coffee still competes with coca, which is harvested year-round.⁷ In 2013 the federation of export coffee growers, Fecafeb, said exports had fallen to about 70,000 bags a year from 110,000 in 2005 as farmers switched crops.⁸ In 2022 a quintal of coffee sold for Bs 800 and a quintal of coca for Bs 1,500.¹

Sultana, the husk tea of the Yungas

Denied the coffee, the yanaconas are thought to have used what was left of it: the dried husk of the cherry. Brewed as an infusion, it is called sultana and was long known as el té del pobre (the poor man's tea), a drink for Yungas peasants while coffee went to the elite.⁶

Families moving from the Yungas brought sultana to La Paz, where it is better known than in any other Bolivian city. As coffee culture grew in La Paz, sultana gained ground, and baristas and cooks now use it in their own recipes.⁶ Slow Food Bolivia, which published a guide to producing it in 2019, notes that output is still small because the husk sells cheaply.⁶

High-grown lots and the cup at home

Bolivia's quality push came in the 2000s. The Cup of Excellence competition arrived in 2004 and was replaced by the President's Cup in 2010.⁷ Caranavi grows coffee at 1,400–1,800 m and Sud Yungas at 1,600–2,100 m, and the harvest runs from June to October. Typica and Caturra dominated for decades; many farmers have since switched to the more productive Catuaí, and some plant Gesha.⁷

In 2019 about 80% of the crop was exported, and Los Tiempos reported that a traditional cup could cost as little as Bs 3 while a gourmet coffee could pass Bs 50.⁵

La Paz: coffee at 3,600 meters

La Paz is Bolivia's seat of government, while Sucre is the constitutional capital. Alonso de Mendoza founded it on 20 October 1548, and the city fills a canyon at about 3,650 m, with El Alto above it on the Altiplano.⁹ At this height water boils at about 87°C, which changes how coffee and tea are made.¹⁰

Plaza Murillo, the main square, holds the Palacio Quemado, the Congress and the Metropolitan Cathedral.⁹ Sopocachi, about 10 minutes from the center, is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods, and its businesses cluster around Plaza Abaroa. Zona Sur, with Calacoto and Obrajes, is the city's second commercial center.⁹ The beans come up from Caranavi, at 976 m on National Route 3 north of Coroico.¹¹