Bernardino (full name is Bernardino Aliaga Torque) and his wife Francisca Mamani Machaca) have two sons and a daughter: Ruben, Javier and Vilma. Their farm has 11 hectares. 8 dedicated to coffee (5 planted) and 3 for new development. The farm is located in  Colonia Amor de Dios, Taipiplaya region, Caranavi Province. Bernardino and Francisca have been working with coffee since 2000.

Their yearly production is about 60 to 80 bags. They are hoping to improve their yields with their 3 hectares expansion area. We have been buying most of Bernardino's coffee since 2014.

He inherited the art of growing coffee from their parents who have more than 40 years of dedication to coffee growing traditions.  In addition to the cultivation management tasks, the farm focuses on managing coffee processing, which means using raised beds for drying under the sun. Since the harvests season is between July to November, the whole Aliaga family work from early morning until late night. They carry out selective harvesting, pulping control, managed fermentation sometimes for 14 to 15 hours daily, then they wash the beans and dry them on raised beds until they reach 12% of humidity. The coffee in pergamino (parchment) is then delivered to Invalsa's cool and dry warehouse in La Paz.

We are very proud of our ongoing relationship with Bernardino and hope to nourish our partnership for the years to come. This is the first time we are offering their coffee directly.  In previous years we sold it all to roasters in California and Arizona.

Explore the region of Caranavi in Bolivia yourself, here: