DAY 4 – Is the local coffee actually any good?

The first surprise when exploring Bolivia’s coffee scene is just how well developed its café culture is. Even at the airport, five different cafés presented themselves as serving “Bolivian specialty coffee”. While I didn’t get much chance to explore Santa Cruz, here in Cochabamba there seems to be a lovely café every 500 metres. And these are places that look great and serve genuinely good local coffee. Typica Cochabamba, which ranked 33rd among the world’s best coffee shops this year, is right next to my hotel, and I’ve happily visited several times already.

What else can I tell you about the coffee here? On a global scale, Bolivia is a small producer, and its production volumes have been declining in recent decades. Coffee growing has historically been concentrated in the Yungas region, which produces 90% of Bolivia’s coffee. Unfortunately, disease destroyed a large proportion of its plantations around ten years ago. It hasn’t helped that growing coca leaves has generally provided a higher and more stable income over the years. In 2025, Bolivia accounted for no more and no less than 0.03% of global coffee trade. But a small revival has been taking place in recent years. Specialty coffee roasters are always looking for something new, and Bolivia’s growing conditions give its coffee plenty of potential. Those lovely cafés are also helping to increase domestic consumption. So, overall, things have been going fairly well for farmers over the past couple of years.

What does Bolivian coffee taste like? As always, there is no single answer. It’s like asking what Georgian tea tastes like. Well, we make more than 20 different teas on our farm alone, and every one tastes different. Flavour depends on the variety, the farm where the coffee grew, how it was processed and how well, the weather and a few other things. But to generalise a little, the coffees here seem fairly light, with clean flavour profiles: gentle citrus and fruit notes come first, followed by a milk-chocolate finish. Of the coffees we’ve roasted at Renegade so far, perhaps the closest comparison is our recent arrival from Mexico.

But if local coffee farmers are doing fairly well at the moment, and there isn’t much to complain about in terms of quality either, what exactly are we going to do here with our Renegade project? Let’s just say you’d be a fool not to find an opportunity for a quiet rebellion against the ordinary. But more on that next time.