This was our 14th consecutive year operating a Coffee Booth at the Topsfield Fair, America's oldest continuously running Agricultural Fair. We had a great time and people enjoyed our 100% organic Bolivian Coffee, our beloved dark-roasted Purple Llama and all of our espresso drinks using our Black Jaguar blend. See you next year!
]]>These cacao beans are significantly smaller than hybrid beans but they have 10% more cacao butter, and lots more flavor. Hybrid cacao beans have about 55% cacao butter, while Heirloom Beniano have 65%, which means higher percentage chocolate on the bar without additional cacao butter.
You can buy it here!
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We just received a new shipments of these wonderful Chocolates. You can order them here. They are made from Wild Amazonian (Silvestre) Beniano beans. We have a broad selection: 75% dark, 57% dark with Uyuni Sal and Aji (Bolivian chili), to Pure White Chocolate and Chocolate covered Amazonian nuts. Perfect present for Mother's Day.
]]>On July 2022, John Nanci, the Founding Alchemist at Chocolate Alchemy, penned the following unsolicited review (copied on its entirety).
"Origin: Bolivia
Region: Alto Beni
Type: Criollo/Trinatario
Certifications: Certified Organic
Year: 2018/19
Flavor Notes:
Oh my goodness, where did the TWO chocolate bars on my desk go? Who are you looking at? I didn't eat them....I mean... I didn't mean to eat them...ok, I ate them and they made me happy!!
ATTENTION chocolate lovers, This is the chocolate you are looking for. It starts off....hang on, before I get into the chocolate, I want to talk about the elephant in the room and that is the crop year for this bean. It is 2018-19 and that is not a typo and these are no more 'old beans' than a fine old wine or block of aged cheddar is 'old'. No, they are all delightfully mature and wearing their age proudly. I'm quite serious. There are so many people looking for the freshest beans, thinking that means something more than it does. Anyone that tells you that fresh is best, always, is....I'll just say it...wrong. Yes, beans can go past their prime just like a wine can but no one can tell you when that is going to happen. That all said, these tasting notes are 100% current, made with these beans that were harvested 4 years ago, and if anything, I think they might be better now than they were a couple years ago. We'll chat about that. Let's carry on.
The aroma starts off big bold round chocolate notes and under currents of sun warmed, perfectly ripe blackberries. The blackberry backs off in the flavor, although it is still present, and you then have layers of clean sweet sugar, soft, delicate dried fruits (a creamy cherimoya comes to mind), a certain savory butteriness and a great chocolate backbone lacing it together all throughout. The bitterness and astringency present when this bean was more fresh, has backed off and melded together into a supple creamy symphony that has you craving just another bite. With those notes in the background, the natural sweetness just shines though and the tangy blackberry makes me think of blackberries and cream. Refreshing and delightful. Although not strong, the nut is a soft roasted peanut coupled with a delicate bottom note of earthy soft leather.
Ok, I'm going to go have another piece or two of this chocolate from my desk....it really is the chocolate you are looking for."
You can order them here:
On a separate subject, This week we finally received our 40-foot container of Bolivian micro lots at the Continental Annex Warehouse in Oakland. More details coming up soon.
Porfilio Mamani and his daughter. Photo by Nelson Valverde ©
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Happy to report the coffees are awesome and will be shipped in January. Nelson brought a new supply of Bolivian Chocolates Para Ti. Order them here. We have plenty of Bolivian micro lots and FTOs as posted in our previous blog. Best of all. We have not increased our prices (yet!) Stock up for the holidays!
-Nelson
]]>Clemente Mamani from Kantutani. Order here:
We have three microlots at the Annex in Alameda, CA from two new farmers and an accomplished one. We have two new farmers at Continental in NJ and the old favorites: Celso Mayta -Cafe Golondrina. Organic Peaberry, Carolina Villalobos and Porfirio Mamani. We also have FTO's AA and AAA, and organic Cascara!
Bernardino Aliaga from Taipiplaya. Order here:
Juan Jose (Juanjo) Machicado from Kantutani. Order here:
Ruben Caceres from San Ignacio. Order here:
Humberto Mamani & Amalia From San Ignacio. Order here:
Organic Peaberry Microlot; Order here.
Organic Cascara. Order here.
Celso Mayta Microlot. Order here.
Fair Trade organic (FTO) AAA. Order here.
Porfirio Mamani. Order here:
Enjoy the Abundanza!
]]>We are proud to report that on The Coffee Review, this coffee earned the third-highest rating in a cupping of African Great Lakes coffees for Coffee Review’s June 2021 report. Moreover it earned the distinct motion for a successful dark toast: "Most coffees we test over the course of a year are light-medium to medium in roast, reflecting each individual roaster’s personally calibrated goal of fully developing the character of the bean while leaving behind neither a distracting scorchy edge nor the grassy, nutty hints of an underdeveloped roast. This month, however, we review one successful darker roast, the Valverde Burundi Kinyovu (92; sweetly roast-toned, roundly pungent and chocolaty).
The Coffee Review Notes: This coffee earned a third-highest rating in a cupping of African Great Lakes coffees for Coffee Review’s June 2021 report. Produced by smallholding women farmers near the Kinyovu Washing Station entirely from local strains of the Bourbon variety of Arabica, and processed by the washed method (fruit skin and flesh are removed from the beans before they are dried). Valverde Coffee Roasters is a specialty roaster with locations in Salisbury, Massachusetts and La Paz, Bolivia.
The Coffee Review Bottom Line: An inviting darker-roasted Burundi with deep, rich chocolate notes throughout, complicated by sweet florals, dried fruit, and a pleasingly smoky cedar.
You can buy green (unroasted) beans here. or roasted beans here. Enjoy!
]]>We just received a shipment of this superb, tasty and memorable Burundian, all-women microlot from the Matongo Community, Kinyovu Washing Station. Cupping Score: 87 points (up from 86.5 last crop). Read the cupping notes. You can order it here.
Due to Covid 19, our new crop Bolivians are coming-in but late. Microlots arriving at the Annex in Oakland first half of May and Microlots (including our famed organic peaberry) and Fair Trade Organics (FTOs) arriving at Continental in NY in late May. Enjoy!
Farm Manager, Juanjo Machicado at our farm in Kantutani
]]>We purchased this award-winning microlot at a COE-run International Auction. The coffee beans were packed at origin in 50-kilo (110 lbs.) GrainPro® bags.
These coffee beans won second place as National Winners (the preliminary round before final Cup of Excellence winners) in Costa Rica's 2020 Cup of Excellence competition, with an average cupping score from the international judges of 86.55.
]]>Just for variety a nice shot of Bolivian Alpaca and baby Cria. Nice shot, Nelson!
Celso Mayta our 50/50 equity partner as Cafe Golondrina was the proud first-place winner of the 2019 Presidential Coffee competition (Bolivian successor to the COE), judged by an international Jury with 92 points and bought by Saza Coffee from Japan at $33/lb., at auction. The varietal is Geisha seeds that we imported from Finca La Esmeralda in Panama
Our chief green coffee buyer and Coffee Lab Manager proudly showing our new Geisha cherries
Juanjo Machicado our happy farm manager at Kantutani, where we are harvesting Catuai and Icatu and where we are planting six acres of Geishas (our own award-winning seeds)
Lidia (Juan Jose's wife) harvesting very hot Bolivian chiles (locotos) in our farm in Kantutani.
Our new arrivals are:
Organic Peaberry Microlot; Order here.
Celso Mayta Microlot. Order here.
Fair Trade organic (FTO) AAA. Order here.
Fair Trade organic (FTO) AA. Order here.
Volker's Tranquilidad wild cacao. Order here.
We just received a whole container with the perennial favorites, Fair Trade Organic (FTO), Invalsa AAA, AA, Peaberry, and Cascara, as well as our own microlot from our farm in Copacabana, the Celso Mayta -Cafe Golondrina. Also microlots from Siete Estrellas and San Ignacio. Bolivian coffee production remains down. But there is hope as more and more farmers follow our example and renovate their farms with disease-resistant varietals.
You can find them all here.
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We just unloaded a full container with two varietals. Our Heirloom (silvestre) Beniano and our Walikeewa (hybrid, Amelonado). You can order them here:
]]>We just received a full container with our perennial favorite, the Santa Barbara Estate Excelso AA+, plus two microlots, one from Nariño, the other from Huila. Just in time for Christmas and the year-end celebrations. You can order them here:
]]>We just received a whole container with the perennial favorites, Fair Trade Organic (FTO), Invalsa AAA, AA and A, as well as four new microlots from San Ignacio (two old favorites and two new, in for the first time) and one old favorite from from Kantutani (Cima del jaguar) and another new one from Amor de Dios.
Did you know the Bolivian flag has three stripes: red, yellow and green? Note the symbolism of the pictured coffee cherries above!
You can find them all here.
]]>We just received 10 bags of a superb, tasty and memorable Burundian, all-women microlot from the Matongo Community, Kinyovu Washing Station. Cupping Score: 86.5 points. Read the cupping notes. You can order it here.
To clear warehouse space for our new Bolivian arrivals, were are putting on sale our other Burundian microlot, Ryirengeye,
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We didn't know this when we started out, either, but Bolivia is a special terroir for cacao, as well as for coffee. In 2013, the Invalsa team launched The Alto Beni Cacao Company, which helps smallholder farmers in the remote & tropical Alto Beni region of Bolivia to produce high quality cacao and processes it the reach industry-leading quality standards.
This year, Para Ti, the largest Bolivian specialty chocolate company, became one of our customers for ABC cacao, and we are excited to be the only site where you can now order their chocolates here in the USA! Enjoy.]]>Above: Christmas decorations at the Bolivian Congressional building in La Paz, Bolivia
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