Brazil – Minas Gerais

This coffee comes to us from the region of Carrado, in the Sao Gortado micro region, an area that boasts over 2000 smaller farms. At 30+ hectares each, the farm sizes aren’t “small” but they’re small for Brazil. Many of the farmers in Carrado still do some manual harvesting, which means more control  over separation of ripe and underripe cherry. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the Brazilian highlands – the Planalto. The farms are located in the 1200 meter range and planted mainly with Paraiso. Paraiso is a cross between a Timor Hybrid and a Yellow Catuai.

The aroma offers hints of dried peach, papaya, sweet almond, and cocoa nibs. The brewed cup has bittersweetness you expect from Brazil, underlying chocolate accents that add a pungent ‘toasty’ note to the sweetness too, like burnt sugar with a dusting of cinnamon. Fruits are limited to aroma, rather than flavor, but offer some mild complexity to the bittersweet core.