Capadocia #5 by Augusto Borges

COUNTRY: Brazil

FARM/COOP/STATION: Capadocia

VARIETAL: Mundo Novo

PROCESSING: Natural

ALTITUDE: 1300 meters

OWNER: Augusto Borges Ferreira

REGION: Sul de Minas

FARM SIZE: 7 ha

HARVEST MONTHS: September to January

FLAVOUR NOTES: Baking chocolate, yellow stonefruit, red apple, almond, with hints of tropical fruit and blueberry

ABOUT THE PRODUCER

As a young, small-scale producer, Augusto started his coffee journey in 2008. He is a fourth generation farmer and is very committed to furthering the quality of his products. His wife, Patricia, also comes from a coffee producing family.

Augusto and Patricia’s farm is located in Sul de Minas. Situated between 1100 - 1300 masl, 4 out of 7 its hectares are used for coffee production. They mainly produce naturals, from yellow and red catuai, yellow catucai, and mundo novo varieties.

Augusto believes that cherry maturation is fundamental for achieving the best results and that the only way forward for Brazilian producers is to focus on specialty coffee.

Picking & Processing

The cherries are harvested by hand and are hand sorted for over and under ripe cherries before being dried. They continue picking out all the defective coffee cherries they can find during this period.

The coffees are processed as naturals. Normally, this process gives you the perception of a sweeter coffee, because of fermentation microbes creating compounds called esters absorbed by the seed. Esters survive the roasting process and are precursors to aromas that are created in the caramelization process of roasting, making the coffee seem sweeter.

Drying

The coffee is slowly dried on paved terraces, by a team who monitors it carefully throughout this process.

About the region

The South of Minas Gerais (Sul de Minas) is a key coffee-producing region in Brazil, encompassing approximately 14 cities and contributing an average of 30% to the nation's coffee output. Several factors have increased the region’s competitiveness in coffee cultivation, including its favourable climate and soil conditions, well-established property infrastructure, diverse production systems, the traditions, and commitment to sustainability.

The mountainous terrain is optimal for coffee cultivation, featuring altitudes ranging from 950 to 1370 metres above sea level and maintaining an annual temperature between 22 to 24°C.

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.

The story of how coffee was first introduced to Brazil is one of subterfuge, seduction and intrigue. In 1727, Francisco de Melo Palheta, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Brazilian army, was commissioned by the Portuguese government (who ruled Brazil at the time) to steal coffee from the French, who had several nearby colonized-countries growing coffee (and had refused to share). When Brazil was asked to intervene in a border dispute in French Guiana, a country that borders the northern Brazilian state of Amapa, Palheta was sent to deal with the dispute….and steal a viable coffee seed!

After Palheta successfully arbitrated the dispute, he asked the colonial Governor of Cayenne for a sample of the governor’s coveted coffee plant. The governor refused, seeking to maintain the monopoly France had on coffee plants in the Americas. Palheta, according to legend, skirted this problem by seducing the governor’s wife. When Palheta was set to depart French Guiana for Brazil, his paramour gifted him a bouquet of flowers that had coffee beans hidden within it. The rest, as they say, is history.

In just a century, Brazil established itself as the largest producer of coffee in the world. In the 1830s, coffee became Brazil’s largest export and accounted for 30% of global production. Within a decade, Brazil had become the largest coffee producer in the world and produced 40% of total coffee grown worldwide.

Another ‘boom’ in coffee production volumes occurred from the 1880s to 1930s. At this time, Brazilian politics were controlled mainly by the agrarian oligarchs in São Paulo and Minas Gerais. This political period was called café com leite (coffee with milk) because the major money-makers in São Paulo and Minas Gerais at that time were coffee and dairy, respectively. During the café com leite period, the people who owned the large plantations in these two regions had a lot of political clout and were able to institute laws that made production and export faster, cheaper and easier.