About This Coffee
Rodrigo Alves da Silva owns and operated Finca Santa Helena in Tiros, Cerrado Mineiro. The 70 hectare farm includes many high quality coffee varieties, including the Arara in this lot. Arara is a newer variety from Brazil that’s prized for its high-scoring cup profile combined with resilience and productivity. The variety is a cross between Yellow Catuai and Obatã, which is itself a Timor hybrid.
Brazil Harvest & Post-Harvest
Most Brazilian coffee is grown on huge farms, built and equipped for mechanical harvesting and processing that are designed to maximize 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 selectively harvest only fully ripe cherries at each pass. This is great 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. The derricadeira – a sort of mechanized rake that uses vibration to harvest ripe cherry - can be used to selectively pick ripe cherry more quickly and cost-effectively than individual hand pickers. 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 that are increasingly concerned with – and able to deliver - cup quality.
After harvest, cherry is typically laid to dry in thin layers on patios. Under direct sunlight, cherry is carefully monitored and turned frequently.
About Cerrado Mineiro
The Cerrado Mineiro is a mix of grassy savannah, scrublands and forests with a rich biodiversity of over 10,000 plant species and 800 bird species. It is the largest woodland savannah in South America. At over 2 million square kilometers, it’s three times the size of Texas and constitutes 21% of all of Brazil’s land area.
Since the 1960s, over 40% of the Cerrado Mineiro’s original land mass has been converted into agricultural land. Coffee has been grown in the area for over 40 years and there are now over 3,000 farms, most of which are smallholder plots.
Cerrado coffee is known for its more pronounced and elegant acidity.
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.