Bolivia Microlot: Celso Mayta (Café Golondrina) Available at Continental (NJ) and Salisbury, MA

Origin Bolivia Region Caranavi Farm / Coop Cafe Golondrina (Swallow's Coffee) Altitude 5,270 - 5,890 ft. Varietals Catuai (40%), Icatu (30%), Geisha (20%)Java (10%) Processing Fully washed Certifications Grown using organic practices but not certified Crop Year 2022/23 Cup Notes Score: 86.5 points. FLAVOR/AROMA: Caramel fragrance with hints of red berries. Vainilla, Sugar Cane, Milk Chocolate, Marzipan, Honeycomb, Floral. Super clean. Sweet delicate spices on wet. ACIDITY: Complex citric (mandarin, lemon, orange). OTHER: Winey & Juicy. Honey, sweet. Transparent, multi-faced, creamy aftertaste. Excellent choice for iced coffee or cold brew. Arrived May 2023. Bagged at origin in 60-kilo GrainPro® bags. A perennial favorite. Now also available in 50 lb. bags to save on shipping costs. Unfortunately, unless you buy 4+ FULL (132 lbs.) bags from our warehouses in NJ & CA we are forced to pass a warehouse fee of $49 per bag. It is cheaper to ship 3+ ( without a warehouse fee) bags via truck (LTL), anywhere. This does not apply to smaller orders. Celso Mayta's farm is called Finca Golondrina, after the swallows that fly in the sky above his coffee trees. It is located in Zona Illimani, Colonia Copacabana, Caranavi Province. Celso works with his family to process and sell their coffee. He has become one of our partners in our Cafe Fortin project where together, in a legal partnership, we work managing a 27-hectare coffee farm which started production in 2018. Celso was born in 1972 but he is already an expert coffee producer, and an inspiration for other coffee growers. In 2004, things were not going so well. Celso was ready to burn his coffee trees, which he had worked with his family since he was three years old, and was all set to grow coca leaves. Growing coca is legal in Bolivia and is a centuries-old Andean tradition. "Until then coffee was only good to survive, coca was better," he says. "Bolivian coffee was exported with a 20% discount because quality was poor and unpredictable. I didn't know what quality meant, so out of curiosity I decided to attend some classes about improving coffee growing practices." What he learned paid off. In 2005 he decided to participate in the second Bolivia Cup of Excellence competition. His coffee submission came in second place and Celso sold the lot on the international auction for $17,000 (six times what he would have received in the domestic market). With the money, he tripled the size of his coffee plantation. In 2019, Celso obtained the first place on Bolivia Presidential Competition, The Bolivian Government version of Cup of Excellence. It sold for $33/lb. at international auction by a Japanese roaster. In 2020 Celso's lot obtained the fifth place. So he is definitely one of the most awarded coffee growers in Bolivia Invalsa has been buying Celso's coffee since 2010, and as stated above, since 2015 we have been working with him to develop an improved-varietal coffee seeding nursery and mechanized washing station at Finca Golondrina and Finca Fortin. We are very proud of our ongoing partnership with Celso. Celso's wife, Carmen and his son Wilmer work in the family farm. His daughter, little Susie (on the pictures below) is just beginning to help out.. Cafe Golondrina has already earned a wonderful international reputation and we hope to maintain it for many years to come.