Photos: George Fearnley 

How Bolivia’s most authentic pizzas are being made in Cota Cota 

This year, the Big 7 Travel website ranked the pizza at La Paz’s Imilla Alzada the sixth best in South America, making it arguably Bolivia’s best. It is one of three establishments opened by Sukko Stach, who previously owned a wine bar, Hay Pan, and the Antigua Miami café, both of which he sold. The pizzeria has been open for six months now and has seen a steady increase in customer footfall as word continues to spread about its tasty slices.

Stach was seeking a means of selling his craft beer when he met Teddy Tantani, a professional baker since the age of 14 and gastronomy student at the Instituto Tecnológico de la Integración Boliviana. Stach stumbled upon the perfect location for a restaurant in Cota Cota in the south of La Paz and was inspired to open an eatery that doubles as both pizzeria and microbrewery. Everything on the menu has been fermented, including the pizza dough, beer, cider and wine. ‘Imilla’ is an Aymara word that translates as ‘girl’, while ‘alzada’ means ‘raised’ in Spanish. The name speaks to the yeast that is used in creating all of the items on the menu.

The dough-making process begins with the masa madre; a mixture of flour and water. No further yeast is added as it already exists naturally in the flour and air. Tantani takes care of the masa madre, allowing it to ferment for 72 hours before topping it with high quality ingredients from La Paz’s popular Rodriguez Market and EcoTambo organic farmer’s market. The cheese is sourced from elsewhere in the country, namely the municipality of San Javier, to the north of Santa Cruz. The pizza slides into a wood-fired oven at more than 400 degrees Celsius. At such a blistering temperature, it cooks in little over a minute, giving it a crispy crust and a soft centre. With their tangy home-made tomato sauce, the pizzas match up to the very finest on the streets of Naples. Stach’s personal favourite is the ‘Pizza de tomate’, which is topped with three types of tomato, as well as garlic and oregano. The menu features classic combinations such as tomato, cheese and basil, as well as more unusual options such as pesto, ricotta and zucchini.

One thing the owner prides himself on is the diverse clientele the restaurant attracts. It initially drew in a younger crowd keen on sampling the beer, but families are now coming with young children and grandparents. ‘I think the nice thing about Imilla Alzada is the diversity of the people it attracts,’ said Stach. The restaurant is always trying to improve its menu by sampling new products and testing new combinations of ingredients. ‘In the future, we would like to have a better relationship with our suppliers so we can offer even better producem,’ the owner went on to say.

Each year Bolivians are drinking more and more cider, particularly at celebrations such as weddings and New Year’s Eve. Stach is already producing small amounts of cider from apples grown in Cochabamba: ‘I think we’ll manage to sell 1,000 litres [this year].’ Looking to the future, he hopes to buy land in Tarija to grow different types of apples and begin producing on a larger scale. Cider has greater potential in Bolivia as it can be made from 100 percent local ingredients, unlike those in beer which have to be imported. Stach anticipates that production will double every year and is hopeful that in seven years time, he will ‘offer high-quality ciders in Bolivia that are known all over the world.’

'This place proves why La Paz is such an incredible foodie destination. Imilla Alzada consistently serves amazing, Neapolitan-style pizza with a modern twist. Think sliced cucumbers, homemade pesto and silky cheese. They also have a great range of craft beer – perfect for washing down that dough.'  - Big 7 travel

Photos: Michael Dunn 

Sopocachi’s new boîte features Bolivian food with a spicy twist

The Sopocachi neighbourhood’s new kid Ahijada, or ‘goddaughter’ in Spanish, is the sister restaurant to the highly Instagrammable and hip Popular restaurant on Calle Murillo in La Paz’s city center. Like Sopocachi, Ahijada has soul. She’s an ajiceria – a modern kitchen serving local dishes with Bolivian ajís like aribibi, gusanito, chicotillo, chinche, dulce and locoto, among others. Fresh chicha, or fermented corn juice, is shipped from the small village of Cliza, up in the golden high valleys of Cochabamba. There is a handpicked selection of natural wines from the Cinti Valley in the south of Bolivia and artisanal cider made in La Paz. The house specialty trout is prepared with a rainbow mélange of fermented ajís by partner and chef Limber Quispe, a 28-year-old Copacabana local. Ahijada Ajiceria features a casual six-seat cement bar in front of a custom-designed open kitchen staffed with young Bolivian line cooks. Ceiling-to-floor windows give the 30-seat salon an airy, urban feel with a curbside Sopocachi street view. Quispe co-owns Ahijada with Juan Pablo Reyes, Diego Rodas and Alexandra Melean, who previously founded the immensely successful restaurant Popular. The partners have been changing the restaurant landscape in La Paz since 2017. 

Belisario Salinas 572, Sopocachi

12:30-14:30, Monday through Saturday

instagram.com/ahijada.ajiceria

Photos: Rhiannon Matthias

With small-scale growers and a vibrant café culture, Bolivian coffee is coming into its own 

Millions of people around the world crawl out of bed each morning desperate for their first cup of coffee. Whether it’s with an ink-black Americano, a frothy macchiato, an elegant café au lait or a cup of instant, we all have our own favorite brews, rituals and customs when it comes to getting our caffeine fix. This small cherry originally from the mountains of Ethiopia has gone from being a sacred and luxury product to the world's second-most sought-after legal commodity, transcending all class and cultural barriers. Coffee and coffee shops have become an integral part of urban living, evidenced by their omnipresence in ‘good morning’ posts on social media and the growth of local Bolivian chains such as Alexander, Copacabana and Typica (with the latter being voted the best coffee shop in South America by Big 7 Travel). In spite of recent changes, Bolivian coffee culture is frequently characterised by the popularity of imported instant coffee there.

The obscurity of Bolivian coffee is not a true reflection of its quality or potential; rather, it’s largely due to the small scale of production throughout the country. ‘We import something like three times the quantity [of coffee that] we export,’ Fabio Arandia, one of the four founders of Café Typica, says.

Los Yungas, where the Amazon meets the altiplano, has the ideal conditions for traditional and organic coffee cultivation. The crop grows best in a shaded, humid environment – exactly like the conditions in the lush cloud forests of Los Yungas. According to Arandia, at least 60 percent of Bolivian growers stick to the traditional shade-grown method, with the rest adopting a mix of organic and semi-organic cultivation techniques. ‘The absence of oxygen at altitude causes plants to grow more slowly, supposedly giving the beans a dense and rich flavour,’ says Rene Brugger, the founder of the Munaipata café in Coroico. Brugger, a Swiss economist who founded the company in 2008, lived in Cameroon, Pakistan and India before he moved to La Paz in the 1990s to work for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. He quickly fell in love with Bolivia’s snow-capped mountain peaks, which reminded him of home. His Finca Shanti (Peaceful Farm) plantation is set amidst a backdrop of breathtaking and seemingly endless green mountains that characterise the Yungas region. It is home to hundreds of arabica plants, various citrus trees and a few rescue dogs – a picturesque mini ecosystem in its own right that thrives to the rhythm of birdsong.

‘What makes Bolivian coffee special is its amazing sharpness.’

—Café Typica co-founder Fabio Arandia

The birds and fruit trees don’t just give the plantation an air of paradise, though: Birds provide natural pest control and, Brugger explains, ‘the shade trees prevent soil erosion and provide natural fertiliser, and the shade also inhibits the ageing of the plants.’ He says that the presence of fruit trees also enhances the aroma of the coffee, adding subtle sour notes or sweet and fruity notes. ‘What makes Bolivian coffee special is its amazing sharpness. It has a sort of fruity kind of citrusy sharpness,’ Arandia says. ‘It’s quite sweet as well. It has a very unique profile which changes depending on the variety. But generally, it has a very interesting and fruity profile.’ As with any traditional coffee farm, the cherries at Finca Shanti are handpicked. The ripeness of the cherries is another decisive factor in the quality of a batch prior to drying or roasting. ‘Lots of people say that coffee gives them acid, upsets their stomach or gives them anxiety,’ Pascuala Huacatati, a worker at Finca Shanti, says. ‘This is the result of unripe cherries being picked and making their way into the final brew.’

Whilst small-scale operations may allow for a refined and unique brew, shade-grown coffee is not without its limitations. ‘In the shade, some pests and fungi develop better,’ Brugger says. ‘This is why some experts recommend sun-grown plantations, and some hybrids have been developed which thrive in the sun.’ In 2013 an outbreak of leaf rust – a fungus which attacks the leaves of coffee trees and prevents photosynthesis – resulted in the loss of 50 percent of Bolivia's coffee crop. Heatwaves and droughts driven by climate change also undermine and threaten traditional coffee production. Other factors, like the country’s geography combined with poor infrastructure that makes transporting the beans very challenging, inhibit the industry. Some farmers opt to grow coca instead, as it is a far less demanding and more lucrative crop which can be harvested several times a year. ‘The problem is lack of incentive,’ Agris Zogota, another Café Typica co-founder, explains. ‘Growing and harvesting is an art form, and young people are migrating more and more to the city, and there is more incentive to grow coca for those in the countryside.’

Whilst much of the coffee produced in Bolivia is aimed at the international market, Brugger’s focus is not to bring his product from Los Yungas to the world, but to bring the world of coffee drinkers to Bolivia instead. He focuses on the Bolivian market, rejecting the idea that his product needs to be shared or receive the seal of approval from the outside world. The hard work of producers like Brugger and their collaboration with local coffee houses is the key to transforming Bolivia’s coffee culture. ‘We need more cooperation throughout the industry, starting with the farmers, then the toasters and even the baristas,’ says Typica’s Arandia. ‘That is the only way we can begin to compete with our neighbours.’