Bolivia's best-known coffee district, on the eastern Andean slope in La Paz department. Coffee was well established here by the 1880s.
The Yungas is a forested band along the eastern slope of the Andes, and its Bolivian section in La Paz department is the country's most notable coffee district. Coffee, citrus and coca are important crops there. Bolivian coffee is grown at roughly 800-2,300 m. A 19th-century account says coffee was so well acclimatised in the Yungas that each grain falling on the ground becomes a tree. Production was 2,400,000 pounds in 1885 and 1,500,000 pounds in 1908, with most exports consigned to Chile.
Field notes
- i
A 19th-century account says coffee was so well acclimatised in the Yungas that it grew spontaneously, as each grain falling on the ground becomes a tree.
- ii
Bolivia's Instituto Boliviano de Café, an autonomous government agency founded in 1965, ran model farms and disease control. By 1988 Bolivia legally exported about 102,000 60kg bags, with about 25% of coffee exports leaving illegally, and coffee was the main substitute crop offered to coca growers.
In the cup, according to guides
- WineyOften notedMelbourne Coffee Merchants describes its La Paz (Yungas and Caranavi) lots as clean in structure with winey acidity and fruit-driven notes.
Within Yungas
Processing
Elsewhere in Bolivia
Sources · 6 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-11. Some details here are less settled than others.
- Yungas · Wikipedia
- Agriculture in Bolivia · Wikipedia
- Coffee production in Bolivia · Wikipedia
- Bolivia, Yungas Mountain · She Grows Coffee
- Origin: Bolivia · Melbourne Coffee Merchants
- Bolivia coffee origin (Coffee Hunter, Mercanta text) · Coffee Hunter (text credited to Mercanta)