About This Coffee
This coffee comes from the farm of Gil Cesar de Melo. Melo is a third generation coffee farmer. He still remembers the sound of the ox carts carrying coffee in his grandfather’s fields. A product of the coffee fields, Gil didn’t think twice about continuing his father and grandfather’s coffee legacy. He planted his first 6 hectares of coffee at Espigão do Palmital in 1995. Since then he has grown the size of his fields and improved quality. Gil attributes the coffee quality from Espigão do Palmital to both the terroir of Cerrado Mineiro and the rigorous post-harvest techniques and processes.
The Cerrado Mineiro is located in northwest Minais Gerais. It is the first region in Brazil to receive a “Designation of Origin.” The area is known for well-defined seasons. Summer is hot and wet and winter is dry and cool. The altitude of the region varies between 800 and 1,300 meters above sea level. The Cerrado Mineiro Region Designation of Origin Regulatory Board marks these coffees “Origin and Quality Guaranteed.”
Harvest & Post-Harvest
After harvesting, this coffee is processed as a natural coffee. The cherries are dried whole and then processed to removed the mucilage. Then, the coffee is sorted and prepared for export. The regulating body, Região do Cerrado Mineiros, ensures that certified farms are following Brazilian work and safety laws.
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.