7 - Sítio da Pedra - Brazil 2024 (Experimental)

In 1970, José Braga de Oliveira, together with his sons, Sebastião, Zezé and Heleno, began coffee cultivation. Ten thousand coffee trees of the Red Catuaí variety were planted. In 1979, most of the crops died due to the black frost. Even with this great loss, the family did not give up and in the place of the trees that were destroyed by the frost they planted the varieties Yellow Bourbon and Mundo Novo. Luciano, Zezé’s son, currently runs the property. He is the third generation to work with coffee and has worked with specialty coffee since 2001.

The harvest was done manually with a hand-held picking machine. After picking, the coffee was taken to the patio where it was washed in the wet mill to separate the floaters. Next the ripe cherries were placed in 200-liter barrels for 100 hours for anaerobic fermentation. After fermentation, the coffee was placed on African beds to dry. The coffee was stored in rest boxes after drying, then processed and prepared, and finally stored in high-barrier bags.

The fruits are picked when they are as ripe as possible. In post-harvest processing, the greatest concern is with cleanliness. When the coffee arrives from the fields, it is washed to separate floaters. After this, the coffee is taken to the conventional patio or to African beds and when it is halfway dried, it is placed in the mechanical dryers or kept on the patio. Before receiving the coffee, both the patios are cleaned, as is the dryer. The coffee is stored in dried cherries in rest boxes and remains there resting from a few days and only then is processing done. After processing, the coffee is stored in high-barrier bags so it doesn’t lose quality or get exposed to moisture.