Each year, we buy an entire container of beans from Brazil. Since 2008, the Adrano has been the flagship of these origins, winning many International and Golden Bean USA awards. But every year we also sample "guest coffees" from related farms in the Poços de Caldas growing region.
This region is a volcanic caldera, meaning a collapsed cone. It is incredibly fertile and features many healing hot springs that draw tourists from around the world (or did before covid-19, anyway).
Our other main origin from this region is Saint Domingos. The Saint Domingos is distinguished from the Adrano as a selection of farm lots that tend to be chocolatey, low acid, high in body, and very smooth. Adrano has a deeper, darker taste with a medium acidity and tends to be bolder in most roast levels.
The one microlot that we continue to carry year after year is the Santa Izabel. This is the coffee with the most mineral-rich, volcanic soil profile, and we use it not only as a single origin but in many of our blends and espressos. 2021 is now the 6th year we have continued the Santa Izabel.
This year, in the summer of 2020, we purchased three new microlots along with the original three origins.
André Sanches Bourbon Arabica Suprema
André Sanches was a pioneer in the coffee industry in the Poços de Caldas region, and was awarded more local medals in competition than any other farmer in the region over the years. In the last decade, his son has taken over the farm and continues to produce amazing coffees.
The Bourbon Arabica Suprema is genetically similar to the Bourbon (pronounced Burr-bone, after the French island where it originated) that is found commonly in Vietnam.
Recent genetic tests have confirmed that Bourbon and Typica were the main seeds taken from Ethiopia to Yemen. From Yemen, French Jesuits imported it to Bourbon Island, today called La Réunion island, and later it found its way to Brazil circa 1860. The soil of South American seems particularly suited to Bourbon.
We had fallen in love with the rich, buttery profiles of Vietnamese Bourbon Arabicas, so we quickly adopted this unique lot that was "extra-selected" from the farms production as the ripest and most robust beans of the lot... hence the "Suprema" designation we have given it.
Bourbon Arabica is slow to mature as green coffee, and is best after it has rested 6-12 months, when it finally has time to convert its sugars more fully into flavor elements. Likewise, it is slow to rest after roasting. While it is generally accepted that Arabicas are at their peak between 3 days and 6 weeks after roasting (if stored in vacuum or nitrogen), Bourbon Arabica is unique in having a maturation peak period of at least 7 days after roasting, up to 3 months if properly sealed.
It is our opinion that properly aged and rested Bourbon begins to approach Kopi Luwak and other flagship coffees like Geisha in pure satisfaction for the taste buds. It is a full-palate delight with a very smooth finish. Its high body also makes it a perfect base for well-balanced espressos.
When roasting a fine Bourbon like this at home, be sure to be patient with its rest period. Patience definitely is rewarded!
Rancho Feliz
Red and Yellow Catuai Arabica is grown on a farm surrounded by a river
and conservation land by Wagner Campos Palmeira Júnior, the owner of
Fazenda Rancho Feliz since 2012, when he acquired the farm. Since then
he has been engaged in the production of quality coffees, investing in
infrastructure and implementing new management techniques. This coffee
is a mix of Red and Yellow Catuai (Arabica).
We were impressed
with the fragrance and rich taste profile of this completely "natural"
process... the cherries are sun-dried and then after peeling, the beans
with their husks on are sun-dried for days until they reach perfect
humidity. This slow process imparts much of the taste in the fruit back
into the beans, and creates a complexity that washed coffees cannot
match.
This coffee is best suited to Medium and Dark levels of roasting and can quickly loose dimension if over-roasted, so we have taken great care to preserve the nuances in our Medium and Harlequin Roasts that hit the sweet spots. We currently have the Harlequin Roast on sale here.
The Go01 Alcides Microlot
GO01 is a natural coffee produced in Alcides's farm in Andradas, close to the caldera. We were stunned at its complexities and the taste profile when combining two roast of slight differences, such as City and Full City.
We have actually chosen to introduce this microlot in blends rather than under its own name, partly because we know it's hard for customers to follow all these different origins and distinguish between them. So coffees like our JAZ Improv : Panda feature our favored harlequin two-temperature roast of this origin. Panda has been a big hit and has been roasted 5 times so far. We have made it a permanent member of the JAZ Improv series, since so many customers have told us how much they love it.
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So many coffees, so little time! We hope this round-up of our current Brazil offerings has been entertaining and informative! Find your new favorite coffee today!
