This special microlot comes from Waliki, the newest farm of the Rodriguez family — Pedro, Daniela, and Pedro Pablo — long-time pioneers of Bolivia’s specialty coffee movement. Planted in 2016, Waliki was designed as a model farm, showcasing careful cultivation and thoughtful processing. That attention to detail carries through in the cup. This lot is layered and expressive, with notes that remind us of tropical fruit salad, wild berries and clementine.
Waliki is located in the colonia (community) of Bolinda, a steep, green valley roughly 10km from the town of Caranavi in the department of La Paz. Bolinda was founded around 60 years ago and was originally known as “Bolivia Linda” — Beautiful Bolivia — later shortened over time.
After decades of exporting coffee, the Rodriguez family established their own farms in 2012 under the name Fincas Los Rodriguez. Each farm reserves more than 30% of its land for native forest. In parallel, Pedro and his family have worked to build both the production of and market for Bolivian specialty coffee, supporting a large number of producers through their coffee farming training programme, Sol de la Mañana.
Waliki spans just under eight hectares at approximately 1,650 MASL. Java is planted at the highest elevations, followed by pink and yellow bourbon, with gesha at the base of the farm. The name “Waliki” comes from Aymara, the language of local Indigenous communities in the Andes. It functions as both a greeting — “How’s everything?” — and a reply: “All good.”
This coffee is processed using the Rodriguez family’s “Coco Natural” process. The cherries are selectively harvested to ensure that only cherries of the ideal ripeness (i.e., the ideal sugar content) are picked. The cherries are added to a tank filled with fresh water, which removes dust and debris. Any under ripe (i.e., lesser dense) cherries float to the surface, where they can be skimmed off.
They are then transferred to raised drying beds for 3-4 days (where they are moved every 30 minutes in the morning and every hour in the afternoon), then subjected to a controlled slow-drying process in a mechanical cacao drying machine for 100 hours (at a maximum of 35°C). Once the coffee reaches the desired moisture level, it is sent to the Rodriguez’s dry mill for milling and grading, ensuring consistent quality.
This is our third year working with the Rodriguez family, and this java is one of two lots that we purchased. It was harvested between April and October 2025 (by 50 to 100 pickers) and landed in the UK in January 2025.
After cupping the coffee, we agreed the Free on Board price with the Rodriguez family (that is, the price of the green coffee delivered to the port of Arica in Chile). We paid the Rodriguez family directly for the coffee, with the support of DR Wakefield who helped us ship the coffee to the UK.
If you're not sure which coffee is for you, or you want to try them all, then our discovery pack is just what you need.
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