Quality in Brazil

Cerrado Mineiro

This month, we are presenting a coffee from our long term partners at Daterra, in the Cerrado Mineiro region of Brazil, alongside a Geisha varietal lot from Fabiano Diniz in the mountainous Alto Caparaó region to the south. Even within the same state of Brazil, Minas Gerais, the conditions these coffees are produced under almost couldn’t be more different. Daterra sits on the flat, dry plains of Cerrado Mineiro at around 1200 masl, not far from the city of Patrocinio. Fabiano works in the mountainous Caparaó national park, at 1400 masl on the border to Espírito Santo, where the cooling influence of the Atlantic Ocean leads to slowly maturing cherries.

Responsibility

Daterra, meaning ‘from the earth’, is made up of two farms just a short drive apart, Boa Vista and Tabuoes. Much care was taken to preserve the native flora and fauna of the Cerrado Mineiro, one of the most biodiverse regions of Brazil, in an attempt to farm collaboratively with nature rather than trying to control it. All of this meant that as Daterra grew, they became the first Rainforest Alliance certified farm in Brazil, and continued to take their environmental responsibilities seriously. They have protected native forest ‘paths’ running between the swathes of natural reserve on the farm, allowing safe passage for wildlife. On our most recent visit in November 2022 this was clear, with a myriad of wildlife all across the farm. Daterra continue to pioneer new levels of quality control in Brazil, using modern agro-technology alongside ancient techniques to consistently create high quality lots.

The Diniz Family

Fabiano Diniz’s farm Alto da Serra has been in his family for four generations, so coffee farming is truly in his blood. The farm is a family business, in fact the founder, Fabiano’s great grandfather, still lives close by, and this year celebrated his 84th birthday. It was Fabiano’s father that started the focus on high-quality coffees on the farm, planting quality varietals and investing in processing equipment capable of producing consistent and clean coffees.

The farm is located in the Matas de Minas region, close to the Caparaó national park on the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. This leads to a rather high altitude compared with much of Brazil, over 1400 metres above sea level at its highest point. After our first experience with Fabiano’s coffee in 2022, we were able to visit him in November of that year, as he was rounding off the harvest and preparing lots for several local and national green coffee competitions

Natural Geisha

This particular lot is of the Geisha varietal, not seen so often in Brazil, but better suited to the high altitude and cooler condition at Fabiano’s farm. Unusually for Brazil, this lot is fully manually and selectively picked, making sure of even and ripe cherries. This is a naturally processed coffee, but is pre-fermented in water-filled tanks before drying. This gives a very slow and controlled start to fermentation, with temperature and microbial activity carefully monitored to ensure consistency. The sealed tanks also favour a lacto-bacterial fermentation as opposed to yeast, pushing the fermentation in this direction as it continues on the beds. This control, and the generation of lactic acid, leads to a rather unique and very clean expression of Brazil, a profile that has become the Diniz family’s signature. 

The high altitude, selective picking and careful fermentation lead to a profile more reminiscent of washed Colombia, with floral aromas followed by crisp notes of apple and rich brown sugar.