Veloso Cerrado NY 2/3 Scr. 15/16 FC RFA

Fazenda Santa Cecília’s 1,140 hectares have numerous microclimates and are well-irrigated by drip systems fed by dams and reservoirs. The farm is managed by 35 farm workers who care for the trees year-round and oversee the cherry harvest. The complete complex is outfitted with a wet mill, dry mill, patio, rotating drum dryers, wood silos, a modern quality laboratory, administrative office and logistics center.

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.   

Fazenda Santa Cecilia uses both Pulped natural and Natural methods for processing coffee. This lot was processed using the Natural method. After mechanical harvest, cherry is typically laid to dry in thin layers on patios. Under direct sunlight, cherry is carefully monitored and turned frequently.

This coffee is NY 2/3, which assures us that there are no more than 8-12 visible defects in a 300-gram sample. This small number of defects would be unnoticeable in most cups, ensuring a consistent and delicious flavor.

Screen 15/16 denotes the size of the beans. Beans are typically separated by placing beans on the top of a series of screens. As the screens are shaken, beans that are smaller than then holes on a specific screen will fall through to a lower screen until they reach a screen with holes too small for them to fit.  

15/16 screens have holes that are no smaller than 5.9 millimeters. Therefore, all beans in a screen 15/16 blend will be larger than 5.9 millimeters. 

FC means Fine Cup which denotes the coffee as specialty grade. 

RFA stands for Rainforest Alliance, a certification system that emphasizes climate-smart agriculture. RFA farms have at least 40% of land covered by canopy, significant species diversity (at least 12 native tree species per hectare, on average) and a system of natural vegetation buffers between agricultural land and bodies of water.  The farms also use organic fertilizers.