Blooming with a floral, vanilla aroma, this washed Caturra from Lucia Mamani is easy to love. A deep, resounding sweetness echos through the cup while a sticky, syrupy body studded with elegant notes of fresh stone fruit and chocolate covered hazelnuts lends a dessert like quality.

About the Producer
The treeless landscape of scrubby grass is dotted with alpine lakes and surrounded by snow covered Andean peaks, the sun slowly rises above the clouds below us highlighting the sky in vibrant hues of pink and purple.  We pass an oxygen mask around the car sharing it as if it was a joint and sip warm coca tea from a thermos in an effort to soften the effects of altitude sickness.  

Arriving on the overnight flight from Florida after a brief stop in Bogotá, the change in altitude is a major shock to the body and the three non-locals in the car struggle against nausea, shortness of breath and loss of consciousness as we pass through La Cumbre the highest point (at over 15,000 feet above sea level) on our trip between the El Alto international airport (the highest in the world), just outside of La Paz, and the coffee growing community of Caranavi five hours away and nearly 12,000 feet below in the Amazon river basin.  The trip takes us through the Yungas pass on the infamous and overwhelmingly beautiful “Death Road”, a dirt track carved into the side of the mountain, once the main thoroughfare connecting the Yungas region with La Paz.   

Driving through the maze of dusty roads on the way to the Mamani farms we are enveloped by the surrounding hills dotted with small, mostly-abandoned coffee farms.  Unruly coffee shrubs, are visible through a dense canopy of overgrown shade trees.  

Due to instability in the coffee market, coffee production in Bolivia fell by over 70% in the 2010’s.  During this time, many farms were completely abandoned or converted to produce more profitable crops, mainly coca, the product used in cocaine production, and to a lesser extent coca tea.  

At the end of the drive we arrive to a small collection of farms owned by various members of the Mamani family.  The coffee fields carpet the sides of steeply sloping hills on Lucia Mamani’s land and small drying patios and raised beds rest on flat land at the base of the farm.  Vigirous and bushy, forest-green Caturra shrubs are broken up by banana, citrus and leguminous shade trees. 

The Manami’s are still growing mainly coffee on their farms and through the Sol de la Mañana project set up by the Rodriguez family of Agricafe, Bolivia’s top processor and exporter of specialty coffee, they’ve got access to a solid market that is willing to pay sustainable prices for quality coffee.  

Sol de la Mañana is a comprehensive program with the aim of transferring knowledge to coffee producers in the Caranavi region through the development of protocols geared towards achieving long-term sustainable profitability for its members. 

Lucia Mamani

Sustainably sourced specialty coffee roasted in Jacksonville, Florida - the bold new city of the South.

Bold Bean coffee shops are located in the Jacksonville neighborhoods of Riverside, Jax Beach, and San Marco.

Locally roasted, hand crafted coffee! Homemade Pastries. Beer, wine, tea. Wholesale and retail coffee shop.

Bold Bean Coffee Roasters

Las Brujas

This coffee comes to us from a washing station named Buzanze in the highlands of southern Rwanda near the border with Burundi. The washing station serves an area of Rwanda that up until recently had a severe lack of processing stations leaving the producers in the area with few options for processing their coffees. This lack of access typically results in low quality and therefore low prices paid for the crop. 

Thankfully, Busanze opened with a focus on quality and in its very first year in operation placed 7th in the Rwandan cup of excellence with a cup score of 89 points (for those of us unfamiliar with the coffee scoring system, 89 points isn’t a B+ like in school, 89 points is a holy-shit-you’ve-got-to-stop-what-you’re-doing-and-come-taste-this-thing type of deal), pretty much 1% of the 1% in terms of quality in coffee. 

The Busanze station is located in an area next to the Nyugwe Forest, one of Rwanda’s most important biodiversity zones. This location fuels the stewardship of the Busanze leadership and members through a focus on conservation and sustainable agricultural practices.

This coffee is on the more approachable side when compared to our other African offerings.  It’s 100% bourbon varietal so, like most high-quality bourbons, it is super sweet and pretty much perfectly balanced.

Great, juicy acidity with a spicy, dried fruit depth a sugarcane sweetness and great floral aroma.

Busanze

This coffee comes from the Eastern Provence in an area called Machakos, southeast of the capital of Nairobi. 

The Muthuzuuni farmers association is made up of around 1000 farmers whose average farm size is a little over an acre. They are typically growing the SL28 variety, a varietal developed in Kenya in the 1930's by a company called Scott Labs (SL). 

SL28 is a pure arabica strain, with Bourbon genetics, that was developed for drought resistance. It is highly regarded for its great cup quality and is widely used throughout Kenya. 

In the cup, the bourbon varietal characteristics can be realized in the SL28 varietal though the big body, deep sweetness, juicy acidity and great balance. It really is a beautiful varietal, complemented perfectly by the processing style used in Kenya. 

Kenyan coffees are typically known for their great complexity, high acidity, big body and amazing sweetness. For me, great Kenyan coffees are everything a coffee should be. We've discussed why this is from a varietal standpoint but also from a processing standpoint all of these characteristics are complemented by the long, double fermentation wash process used in Kenya. With this process, coffee is harvested and pulped, it is left to ferment dry in fermentation tanks for typically 18 hours. 

After this initial fermentation the coffee is then rinsed and left to ferment underwater for another 18 hours. After this second fermentation the coffee is agitated to remove any remaining mucilage, the fermentation water is drained and the coffee is then washed with fresh water before being dried on raised beds. 

All of this, the long fermentation, the thorough washing and ideal drying conditions and processes results in very clean and complex coffees.

Although a favorite at the roastery, Kenyan coffees have always been a very hard seller for us. I think a lot of consumers have trouble with the high acidity that the origin is known for. This is a real bummer but we're continuing to push through and hopefully we can build a bigger following for these incredible coffees. 

In the roaster we approached Muthuuzini a little differently than we've been roasting Kenyan coffees in the past. We used a bit more development to highlight the sweetness in the cup and body while taming the acidity slightly. This gave us really great results this week and I am loving how the Muthuuzni is tasting. Complex, lush and clean with an incredible raw sugar/sugarcane sweetness.

Muthuuzuni AA

This year, Mariposa is a blend of two different Rwandan coffees, a washed lot called Busanze and a natural lot called Abakundakawa. Rwandan coffees are balanced with great acidity and notes of citrus, raisin/dried fruit, spices and floral notes. The Busanze adds a bright floral tone and clean acidity to the blend while the Abakundakawa contributes the sweet, dried fruit and spice notes.

Mariposa // Spring Seasonal Blend

Evac Blend

While our signature house blend of Latin American coffees may change with the seasons, its sweet and syrupy flavor profile remains tried and true. An edge of spice and frutied complexity is just enough to keep SweetSpot interesting. This blend gives us perfect espresso shots all day long in our shops, holding its own as a straight espresso and in milk-based drinks, but is versatile enough to be brewed as a filtered or French press coffee, too. No matter how you brew SweetSpot, you’re certain to have a quality cup every time.

Sweet Spot - House Blend

There’s something about the light in southern Brazil. Since Carmo de Minas is our furthest source from the Equator, the sunlight there is a bright embrace, never a harsh strike. The producers provide just as much of an embrace, gathering together every day to share meals and laughter. Our friend Alvaro always treats us to BBQ (and a few healthy swigs of his homemade cachaça), making us feel like family. It’s clear that togetherness is top priority in Carmo de Minas. It just feels right.

COCARIVE is a 660 member-owned-and-operated cooperative located in southern Brazil in the slopes of the Serra da Mantiqueira de Minas, a region known worldwide for high-quality coffee production. The cooperative was established in 1961 with the objective of transforming local coffee production into a point of reference for producing high quality coffee in order to promote the development of the region.



Carmo De Minas

Ana Mustafà’s progressive spirit keeps us coming back. At the farms she partners with in Colombia, she’s changing everything. And we mean everything—picking methods, management, varietals, shade techniques, soil health analysis, processing and more. We source our decaf specifically from her because it’s the best we’ve ever had, full stop.

Typically, decaf sucks.  It’s an afterthought; a product of lower-quality, past crop coffees.  But, it doesn’t have to be this way and it shouldn’t.  The fact is, for the most part the only coffee drinkers who are consuming the beverage solely for taste are decaf drinkers. 

We are very proud to offer an extremely fresh and beautiful decaffeinated coffee.  The same amount of care was taken in harvesting, processing, and sorting this coffee as Ana Mustafá’s caffeinated offerings. The coffee was sent straight from the farm to the dry mill, then the decaffeination plant before being exported straight to Jacksonville. 

This is how decaf coffee tastes when everything is done right.  Enjoy!

Bold Bean Coffee Roasters

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Bold Bean Coffee Roasters

🇺🇸 United States

Served in Coffee Shops

Coffee Roasts

Ana Mustafa

Busanze

Carmo De Minas

Evac Blend

Las Brujas

Lucia Mamani

Mariposa // Spring Seasonal Blend

Muthuuzuni AA

Sweet Spot - House Blend

New Coffee Review