Trip to Origin – Brazil, 10th – 19th May 2014, Bewley’s Master Roaster, Paul O’Toole.
Brazil accounts for over 30% of the world’s crop, with reports that it will overtake USA coffee consumption within 5 years. 30% of Bewley’s coffee is sourced from Brazil and in May, Howard Barwick from Bewley’s UK and myself visited three farms in Brazil to see first-hand the people and farms behind the coffee roasted in Bewley’s, Dublin.
The Brazilian harvest always commences at the end of May but with talk of the crop coming early, Howard and I visited Brazil earlier than normal. On arrival, we quickly realised that things were in fact on track for a normal harvest and with temperatures dropping, producers said conditions were ‘Bon’ for the coming harvest, with one particular farm we visited predicting that the crop would be 51 million bags. We found this to be a positive development given that some in the industry expect 2014 Brazilian crops to be impacted upon by drought.Despite a concern about a carryover from 2013, official statistics are stating 6 m bags while those on the ground are saying the more realistic figure is 9-12 m bags.
Day 1-3
Our first stop on our visit was Atlântica Coffee based in the City if Belo Horizonte. While there we met Rogerio Schiavo and Irene Vieira. Mr Schiavo is a 20% shareholder in the Atlântica Group, which has an annual turnover $700m and exports 1.6m bags of coffee annually. They also own 4 farms, producing 160,000 bags of coffee.
Next we flew east of Belo Horizonte to the town of Manhuacu, located in the East of Minas Gerais and bordering Espirito Santo. This is where we source Bewley’s fine cup standard ‘Mogiana’.The first stop when we arrived in Manhuacu was the Armazens Dry Mill and Warehousing Facility. The technology at the facility was very impressive, also, the sheer volume of coffee that this warehouse handles, with over 400,000 bags being processed per month.
We then visited the Dultra Farm, which is owned and run by Walther and Dinho Dultra and produces 25,000 bags of coffee over 14 different varietals. The family also own a farm nearby called Agua Limpa. Both farms together produce 15-25K bags. The Dultra Famr is a visually stunning farm, more in common with Central American mountainside estates. The farm has a small micro-roastery where they sell their coffee to the local market. On both farms, all picking is done by hand, although with the assistance of ‘mechanical hands’, imagine an edging strimmer with hands!
We also visited Fazenda Agua Limpa, the brother’s other farm where harvesting was underway.
After spending time here, we then flew to the north of Minas Gerais to the beautiful farms of Primavera and Matilde. Primavera had wide open fields organised for mechanical harvesting but with separation of lots allowing for greater tractability and development of specialty coffees. Matilde was different it is a typical monoculture area, but also has around 100 hectares under shade from African Mahogany. Matilde is about 500 hectares and grows Red & Yellow Catuai, Mundo Novo and Catucai. It also has good capacity for drying on raised ‘African’ beds and again uses significant separation of lots to add value. The processing and mechanical drying for both farms takes place at Primevera Mill.
Day 4-7
Next stop on the trip was Uberlandia where we spent a few days in the company of Isabela Pascoal and Gabriel Moreira from the Fazenda Daterra farm located in the growing region of Cerrado. Deterra provides coffee to Bewley’s operations in the UK and we were particularly interested to learn more about the fine cup standard ‘Monte Cristo’ and the ‘Sweet Yellow Bourbon’.
Bought by the Pascoal family in the 1970’s, Daterra has been one of the most innovative growers in Brazil achieving many firsts such as RFA accreditation, ISO accreditation and 14001 environmental accreditation. It is a large group of farms (Boa Vista, Tabuoes, Santo Antonio, Santo Inacio, Buriti), with 6690 hectares in total, 2600 hectares of which is coffee. They have 300 full time employees and 300 seasonal staff for the harvest.
Daterra has made significant investments in technology, from trials with various varietals, drying equipment, wet and dry mills, to employing PHD standard laboratory technicians. We met with some of the cupping team in the very well equipment quality lab (one of several throughout the farm) several times over the two days and cupped throughout the range of coffees they offer including some experimental lots. The knowledge of producing ‘in-cup’ quality i.e. brewing process, methodology and espresso was of an excellent standard.
Particular standouts within the range of coffees on the Daterra menu included the Sunrise and the Sweet Yellow. We were introduced to the new ‘Atelier Daterra’ – special micro lot brand that will sit on top of the current ‘menu’ and offer greater range of coffee aimed at the artisanal part of the market. We also discussed their coffee auction (first iteration last year on Stoneworks).
85,000 bags of coffee are produced by Daterra annually. In 2013 they had a bumper crop of 100, 000 bags and the expectation for 2014 is to produce 78,000 bags. The reduction this year is not due to drought but after a bumper crop last year the farm engaged in a significant pruning program at the end of last season with the aim of giving their trees some relief.
Day 8 & 9
Our trip finished with a visit to Sao Paolo City, to explore the growing coffee scene in the city and in particular the high standard of barista expertise in high street coffee shops. The stunning Octavio, owned by ‘O’ coffee was visually impressive and did a great job of an immersive high end coffee experience. ‘Coffee Lab’ was a very familiar experience if you have expectance of some of the ‘artisanal’ cafes in the Ireland and the UK and very well executed.
The style of filter coffee served is really quite different to Europe/US (referencing quality coffee outlets and SCAE/SCAA brew parameters ‘gold cup standards’). The Brazilian style is a much shorter filter style, often only around 120-150ml total volume for a similar or up-dosed coffee measure. The result can be a little overpowering, lacks nuance and can be a bit unbalanced, but often (surprisingly) is reasonably well rounded and obviously has heavy mouth feel. Coffee Lab did explain this in their menu and offered a choice of styles.
To check out the photographs from the trip just click here