Fazenda Aurea is in a region called Serra do Salitre, a high plain in Cerrado Miniero, Minas Gerais state. It's the same area where we bought the competition-winning natural dry process Fazenda Rio Paraná of Ricardo Torezan a couple years back. At 1200 meters, the Serra do Salitre has better altitude than most of Cerrado proper, which averages 800-900 meters for coffee production. It's a coffee that is widely available - it's no microlot here. But when there is a better lot, it can do everything I want a Brazil to do, and at a price that is comfortable. In fact, many Brazils should cost less than other origins, because these coffees form Cerrado are mechanically harvested, and prepared for export en masse. Done well, mechanical harvesting is brilliant. But how many areas have the flat topography for this technique: very few. We like this coffee for it's consistency and as a blend base (although it is respectable as a straight roast as well). It works very well for espresso. It roasts well, evenly, especially for a dry process. Larger farms like Aurea use mechanical harvesters, something I used to have a bias against but seeing the results of this on my last trip to Brazil, it changed my mind. It's not like you can use machines to pick coffee anywhere - Brazil, and the flat plain of Cerrado in particular, is one of the few coffee growing regions it makes sense.The even roast hints at good ripe cherry selection. The reason for receiving coffee in the form of ripe cherry is to ensure uniform processing, and to avoid the defects that usually end up on the patios in typical dry-processing. This is a balanced, not overly fruity flavor profile. The dry fragrance in lighter roasts is distinctly nutty, malty, slightly caramelly, whereas Full City+ is more chocolate-laced. Wet aromatics and cup flavors can be described in much the same way: Solid body, balance, low acidity, creamy mouthfeel and flavor. This is no Micro Lot, it's a big farm that produces a lot of this coffee. It's a simple coffee too, straightforward. But we felt this lot was clean, had great body, a clean flavor profile, uniform roast and cup character, and more sweetness than anything else on the table (including some fancier and much more expensive coffees). There you have it.



View Cupping Scores Hide Cupping Scores

Daterra Farms is a remarkable presence in the Brazilian coffee world ...and the entire coffee world, actually. Here we find one of the most innovative cultivators of coffee, where each step is scrutinized, rethought, reinvented. It is more of a coffee research institute than a farm! Well, that's not true ... like all farms the coffee tree predominates, but here we have each plot marked off in terms of what "experiment" is currently being conducted to improve cup quality. When I visited there were plots of huge 20 foot tall "native" coffee trees, then pure Catuai cultivar areas, Icatu, Mundo Novo and other cultivars I have never encountered. And then there were the old traditional cultivars, Typica and Bourbon. We cupped a range of their coffees and, instead of selecting Yellow Bourbon as we have in the past, we found the best cup in their Sweet Yellow blend. Sweet Yellow? It's a blend of Yellow cultivars, Bourbon and Icatu, great for brewed coffee and espresso! Like our previous Daterra lots, this is a vacuum packed coffee that underwent Penta system preparation as the Reserve. What's Penta? It's central component is Daterra's system to sort coffee under black florescent lights, with added defect removal steps, store in special warehouses optimized for coffee, locking in the moisture content in the green coffee with vacuum packaging, boxing and shipping. Perhaps it is the future of green coffee, primarily because coffee must be transported through humid zones in the origin country and (especially if the container of traditional burlap bags gets waylaid at port) can result in the coffee taking on moisture; it's a bad thing. This coffee is versatile, for espresso single origin espresso, espresso blends, or brewed coffee. The dry fragrance has caramel/molasses and warm spice, caraway, a sweet-savory scent (umami). The wet aroma is like honey on toasted bread, and a bit of anise on the break. The brewed cup is very balanced and mild, with soft acidity, caramel and malty grain sweetness, and highly viscous body. There's an interesting nutty note, somewhat like toasted sunflower seed. The espresso has balanced chocolate bittersweet, cocoa powder, creamy body, and (at FC roast) a nice bright, pointed accent that is neither citric nor fruited. It has a malty tone, and is perfect as a base to use with an accent coffee, an Ethiopia for example.

This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.

View Cupping Scores Hide Cupping Scores

Fazenda Vista Alegre (FVA) is located near the town of Jaboticatubas, 60 Km from Belo Horizonte, the capital of the state of Minas Gerais. It's an almost legendary farm, known for it's unique approach to coffee cultivation in the dry Cerrado coffee belt of Brazil. And their premium coffee is the FVA Natural Dry coffee, a process where the coffee cherry is mostly dried on the tree before being picked. This long contact time with the plant system that has sustained it, means the cherry develops the sugars in it's fruit layer to the highest degree possible. It might explain why the FVA Natural Dry has a cup that is both elegant and intense. FVA is also unique in the combination of overhead and drip irrigation they use to ensure plant health, and to manipulate the cherry development, especially in the final stages of fruit formation. It also allows them to deliver plant nutrition directly where and when it is needed, and conserve water from evaporation. The Natural Dry is "finished" on a drying patio after picking, and then "conditioned" in indoor wood silos with clay roofs for 4-6 months. The intent is to produce a coffee with a deep, rounded flavor profile, weighty but soft on the palate. It is a very unique flavor profile! The dry fragrance has malty chocolate scents, a general spicy and savory character, with a hint of tamari sauce. The wet aroma has a warm spice, yeasty, malty-wheat character, rather like Saison beer. It has a buttery sweetness too, and a note of hay. It certainly bears out it's reputation as an exotic flavor profile. The cup has very low acidity, but it makes it no less unusual or intense, The mouthfeel is thick and weighty, there is essence of peach, stewed peach being prepared for pie, really. The weighty quality and a favorable aged character, a little oak, with the peach note gives the impression of brandy. It has a deep-toned sweetness, unlike other coffees, in a more food-like way; a bready sweetness. It's an odd combination of elegant flavors and rustic ones, there is an impression of denisity, thickness and rounded flavors, a beefy cup profile overall, with warming notes, and even a pleasant suggestion of leather. Perhaps that is why I think of Yemeni coffees, but it is so different than those wild lots, too. One thing for sure, FVA is a unique tasting experience, and for those who like low acidity coffees, Indonesias and such, and a hint of the rustic and complex, this might be the one for you!

This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.

View Cupping Scores Hide Cupping Scores

Fazenda Nossa Senhora de Fatima is near the town of Perdizes, Minas Gerais, owned by Ricardo and Gisele Resende. Nossa Senhora de Fatima was named after the virgin Fatima, and also after a religious city in Portugal where Ricardo’s mother was born. It's one of a handful of Brazil coffees we have vacuum packed at origin, before export. The farm is located in the 'Triangulo Mineiro' in the Cerrado region of Minas Gerais and sits at an elevation of 950 meters above sea level with 1500 mm rainfall. The farm is 100% organic, without agrochemical inputs. Environmental preservation is a top priority at Fazenda Nossa Senhora de Fatima. The farm is dedicated to replanting native tress and caring for the indigenous fauna and flora, as well as protecting the native species. Livestock is also reared at the farm and includes chickens, cows and pigs. The whole farm covers an area of 395 hectares of which 235 hectares are put over to coffee. Nossa Senhora de Fatima farm is 100% organic. The farm has its own fertilizer plant where Ricardo makes organic fertilizer, composed of animal manure and plant composts, that is the only fertilizer to touch the coffee plants. To combat bugs and coffee plant plagues, Ricardo uses pharmaceutical plants like the Neen and the Embo trees from India. We offer this coffee as a dry-process lot, although they do peel the skin when it is harvested, making it a pulp natural. But everything about this coffee in terms of the cup screams "dry-process"; intense chocolate, fruit and body! The dry fragrance is clearly fruited, but clean (as opposed to fermenty fruit). There are berry syrup notes and baked peach pie, which a sweet chocolate backdrop. Adding water, the wet aromatic has a herbal balsam shampoo quality, plus the baked fruit accents found in the dry grounds. It has an imposing sweetness, and a dark malted note as well. The cup has raisin, rustic chocolate and baked peaches, with a thick, viscous mouthfeel. There are traces of toasted coconut, and macadamia nut as well. In the finish, a slight tobacco and mint flavor come out. It is definitely true the the character of Brazil dry-process coffees, like the Poco Fundo lots we have had in the past but with a more definite, sweeter fruit quality. Oddly, I keep thinking about the Yemeni coffee flavor profile as I cup this.

This coffee is part of our direct trade Farm Gate pricing transparency program.

View Cupping Scores Hide Cupping Scores