About This Coffee
The Mapelli family patriarch, Mr. Luigi Mapelli arrived in Santos in November 1888. Mapelli, an immigrant from Milan, Italy, found work on coffee farms in Caconde. There, Mapelli met his wife, Virginia and together they had 4 children.
Luigi, Virginia and their young family moved to São Sebastião da Grama where they worked on Fazenda Santa Alina. After a lot of effort and careful saving, they purchased Fazenda Forquilha. As their farm prospered, they began purchasing more property and expanding their coffee production.
Clayton Mapelli, one of Luigi’s great-grandchildren and a co-owner of JC&C, continues the Mapelli family tradition of coffee farming. In addition to winning quality competitions and finishing as a finalist in the Cup of Excellence, Clayton has become an ambassador for Vale da Grama’s excellent microclimates for coffee production.
JC&C is committed to showcasing the immense talent and potential of Vale da Grama’s coffee producers and the land itself. The region’s high altitude and volcanic soil make it a great producer of high quality coffees.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Most Brazilian coffee is grown on huge farms, built and equipped for mechanical harvesting and processing, maximizing productivity. The relatively flat landscape across many of Brazil’s coffee regions combined with high minimum wages has led most farms to opt for this type of mechanical harvesting over selective hand-picking.
In the past, this mechanization meant that strip-picking was the norm; however, today’s mechanical harvesters are increasingly sensitive, meaning that farms can harvest only fully ripe cherries at each pass, which is good news for specialty-oriented producers.
In many cases and on less level sections of farms, a mixed form of ‘manual mechanized’ harvesting may be used, where ripe coffee is picked using a derricadeira – a sort of mechanized rake that uses vibration to harvest ripe cherry. A tarp is spanned between coffee trees to capture the cherry as it falls.
With the aid of these newer, more selective technologies, there’s a growing number of farms who are increasingly concerned with – and able to deliver - cup quality.
About Mogiana
Mogiana is one of the oldest coffee-growing regions in Brazil. The region is named after the Companhia Mogiana, who owned the railways that traversed the mountainous coffee regions. The train line was known as “The Coffee Train” for its role in facilitating early coffee production and exportation.
Mogiana is a valley region that runs along São Paulo’s border with Minas. The region has a long history of growing coffee that dates back to the 1800s. Today, more than 1 million bags of coffee are grown in the Mogiana Valley annually.
With its deep, richly red soil, Mogiana has a range of unique range of microclimates that are each renowned for particular cup notes.
NY2
NY2 is a designation that assures us that there are no more than 6 visible defects in a 300-gram sample. This small number of defects is unnoticeable in most cups, ensuring a consistent and delicious flavor.
Screen 17/18
This bean is screen 17/18, which is the second-largest possible bean size. The large, consistent beans are between 6.75 and 7 millimeters. This small variation among beans makes it easier to roast all beans to the same level.
Coffee in Brazil
Just under 40% of all coffee in the world is produced in Brazil - around 3.7 million metric tons annually. With so much coffee produced, it’s no wonder that the country produces a wide range of qualities. Brazil produces everything from natural Robusta, to the neutral and mild Santos screen 17/18, to the distinctive Rio Minas 17/18. In recent years, Brazilian producers have also begun investing more heavily in specialty coffee production. Through our in-country partners in Brazil, including our sister company, we are able to provide a wide range of Brazilian coffees to our clients: from macrolot to microlot.
Today, the most prolific coffee growing regions of Brazil are Espirito Santo, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Bahia. Most Brazilian coffee is grown on large farms that are built and equipped for maximizing production output through mechanical harvesting and processing. The relatively flat landscape across many of Brazil’s coffee regions combined with high minimum wages has led most farms to opt for this type of mechanical harvesting over selective hand-picking.
In the past, mechanization meant that strip-picking was the norm; however, today’s mechanical harvesters are increasingly sensitive, meaning that farms can harvest only fully ripe cherries at each pass, which is good news for specialty-oriented producers.
In many cases and on less level sections of farms, a mixed form of ‘manual mechanized’ harvesting may be used, where ripe coffee is picked using a derriçadeira – a sort of mechanized rake that uses vibration to harvest ripe cherry. A tarp is spanned between coffee trees to capture the cherry as it falls.
With the aid of these newer, more selective technologies, there’s a growing number of farms who are increasingly concerned with – and able to deliver - cup quality.