"Yes, I thank you. First of all, welcome to the San Ignacio Colony at 1800 masl, and of course, last year I participated in the contest, but with little coffee and I liked to participate, so we got together and we are participating with five partners."

"I’ve heard especially on the radio station in Caranavi about Cup of Excellence and also people have visited and explained in a workshop about the program. So I organized my partners and told them to participate together with our coffee because we wanted to know the scoring our coffee could get. " "Our coffee has improved; we’ve prepared it better than last year. " "Last year it was less, now I am increasing the amount even more, I am working with more coffee."

"I feel proud right now for having participated this year and obtaining the 14th place, and my partners are also proud. " "I would like for next year the contest to be wider, and also more transparent. I know this year it’s been so, right? There was no manipulation nor anything, we’d like to see it clearer. "

"I would like to tell the other producers to learn to improve the handling of your coffee and more with the specialty coffee which is difficult to handle; it is not as we handled the organic one, it is very different to the specialty coffee. I tell the other partners to get encouraged for next year to get into the contest, and that way we’ll know the quality of our coffee, and they will know it in the foreign countries that our coffee is the best of Bolivia. " "I have four children who are happy. "

"Yes, I want to improve more my coffee plantation, increase the size a little bit more. I come from the Camacho Province of La Paz, Cantón Escoma Comunidad Tutucuchi and I’ve been living here for 10 years."

Quality Practices

The ripe coffee cherry harvest is done manually, process in which the whole family intervenes during the tour months that the harvest takes, from June to September; the coffee cherry is immersed in water in order to do the first selection of vain coffee beans. The pulping is done in a wooden pulper immediately alter the daily coffee collection is finished. The coffee is fermented during a period of 15 hours, after which the mucilage is separated. This coffee is manually washed with clean water coming from natural slopes that the mountains of the Bolivian Yungas region. The coffee drying is done on tables totally exposed to the sun.

Other Statistics:
Soil type : sandy clay loam
Annual precipitation : 2.000 mm/year
Shade type : Inga edulis, Cedro