vol.10

Brazil Sebastião Daniel da Silva Yellow Catuaí

[ 1 ] Coffee

Country: Brazil
Farmer: Sebastião Daniel da Silva
Farm: Sitio Vargem Alegre
Variety: Yellow Catuai
Process: Natural
Region: Mantiqueira de Minas, Minas Gerais

[ 2 ] Notes

[ 3 ] Story 

The farmer Sebastião Daniel da Silva owns this small farm 'Sítio Vargem Alegre' in the city of Cristina-MG, in the region of Mantiqueira de Minas. 

Sebastião and his wife Hilda both came from farmers' families, and they had cultivated rice for over a decade. In the 1980s, they made a radical decision to change to a new culture, coffee. 

They had a strong focus on quality from the beginning and all the hard work paid off when they entered the renowned competition 'Cup of Excellent' where he placed 2nd, 9th & 10th, and 1st in the BCSA (Brazil Specialty Coffee Association) micro-region showcase.

Surprisingly, in 2018, his son Eduardo also won the regional Carmo best Cup contest and became a finalist in Carmo best Cup 2019.

They are both incredibly enthusiastic and passionate about their work and continue to produce competition level quality in this small 3 hectares farm.

Brasil Specialty Coffee

Upon sourcing this incredibly rare coffee, I have to mention my friend Marcos from Brasil Specialty Coffee whose based in Mount Gambier in the South East of South Australia.

He is a Brazilian and he grew up in the coffee region. He studied agronomy and he has been working with coffee ever since.

The best part of it is that he source his coffee directly from the small farmers which are almost impossible to come across for someone like us in Australia.

I have to admit that Brazil is generally not my favourite coffee origin (sorry! no offence to Brazilian coffee lover) but when I received his coffee, I was blown away and it completely changed my view on Brazilian coffee.

So sweet and so juicy.

Typically, Brazilian coffees taste nutty, have a soft body and a hint of cocoa. They also often lack in interesting flavour and focus in the middle palate.

why?

I believe this is due to the coffee trees growing at lower altitude compare to other specialty coffee origins, which also limits the availability of varieties.
Predominantly, Natural or Pulped Natural process are used to boost up the sweetness and body.

All of this make the coffee beans softer and less dense. 

If you are a roaster reading this, we all know that Brazil is one of the hardest coffee to roast due to it's low density.
Brazil is infamous for having the super soft 1st crack (sometimes you don't hear it at all) and a very aggressive temperature rise during the development phase which can cause the beans to over develop easily. 

In short, not a fan...
 

What about this vol.10 lot?

This coffee was produced by Sebastiao Daniel da Silva in his small 3 hectares farm called 'Stio Vargem Alegre'. 
The variety is Yellow Catuai which is a cross between two varieties, Mundo Novo (high productive) and Caturra (compact), grown at 1380 meter above sea level.
He used Natural process for this lot. 

Nothing extraordinary here.

This really made me think that the quality comes from the farmer's hard work and attention to details. 

This lot is so vibrant and juicy. I absolutely love it!

These are my actual cupping notes when I tried his sample:

• Acidity 6.75
• Body 7
• Sweetness 7.25
• Balance 7
• Score 88 (out of 100)
• Notes: Balanced, structured, juicy, clean, mango, plum, mandarine

I have to say this is by far the best Brazilian coffee I have ever tried, and one of my favourite BRUT volume at the moment.

I will definitely recommend you to give it a crack. 

Thank you so much Marcos.