Brazil Premium Cerrado Mineiro – Fazenda Café De Minas – Catuai Natural

Description

A stellar example of a premium Brazil; crisp, clean and sweet with floral, soft fruit and chocolate tones. This isn’t your normal “nutty” Brazil.

Antônio Marcos do Carmo began farming coffee following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. Originally from Paraná state, he moved to Cerrado Mineiro in 2003 to leave behind the nematode epidemic that was plaguing crops in the area. He and his settled in the municipality of Guimarania with the intention of producing high quality coffee.

Antônio farms 32 hectares of coffee across this 60 hectare property. He adheres to selective harvesting and careful drying practices, ensuring that the quality and terroir of his crop is brought to their full potential.

This lot of Red and Yellow Catuai coffee underwent Natural processing. Catuai was developed by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) of Sao Paulo State in Campinas, Brazil by crossing Mundo Novo and Caturra varieties. Catuai coffees are cultivated widely across Brazil, and are known for their high productivity potential.

Tasting notes:
A great cup from light to dark! We thought it best at the light-medium roast levels, incredibly clean cup. Lighter roasts accentuate the sweet and crisp floral/fruity tones while still presenting some balance with a chocolate like dark note. A little thinner bodied cup in the medium to low acidity range. As one pushes into the medium and dark roast marks, the crispness reduces greatly and the chocolate like factor becomes very strong. The soft fruit tones retains at darker roast levels but mostly noticeable as the cup cools.

Roasting Notes:
Versatile coffee good from light to dark. A little chaff heavy being a natural but roasts nice and even. Super light or super dark were the least favorite roasts for everyone here. A nice medium to borderline dark roast presented the cup nicely. For espresso, good to get a little fuller roast, turns nice chocolate in the shot.