About This Coffee
The Vinhal family has been producing high-quality Brazilian coffees since 1988. Today, the farm is run by father and son duo, Alfonso and Rafael. Together, they’ve paved the way for excellent specialty coffee production, including this innovative Anaerobic Pulped Natural lot that they call “cocada” after a Brazilian candy made from coconut, an homage to its sweet and fruity flavor.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
This innovative triple fermentation process uses anaerobic fermentation to create a fruity and delicious coffee that’s blown us away. Cherry is carefully monitored throughout the entire process and only the highest quality cherry is used. Temperature, pH and sugar level (Brix content) are all carefully monitored across all stages.
In the first step, cherry is placed in water and fermented anaerobically (in a sealed, airless container). Then, cherry is pulped using a low-water pulper and anaerobically fermented a second time. Finally, parchment and remaining mucilage is laid in thick layers on a patio to sundry. These thick layers are essential because parchment continues to ferment as it dries. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even fermentation and drying.
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.