Brazil Premium Mantiqueira De Minas – Sitio Vital – Red Catuai Natural

Description

Born and raised in ​​Distrito dos Ferreiras in the city of São Gonçalo do Sapucaí, Minas Gerais, coffee producer Danilo Vital began learning about coffee production at a young age. His grandmother Nita taught him the entire process, from fertilizing the land to post-harvest processing. Today, Danilo and his parents grow coffee on 1.5 hectares of their three hectare family farm, Sítio Vital, where they work together fulfilling their dream of cultivating high quality coffee.

This lot of Red 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 fun and more wild Brazil coffee. This lot was slow dried, bringing a nice complex semi-sweet red fruit tone to front end of the cup; very reminiscent of Cascara if you have had that before. A little hint of acidity at the lighter roast points makes the cup really pop, a lemony floral crispness, balancing with a more oaky/nutty undertone with that cascara accent. Smooth cup a bit more on the neutral side. Medium to dark roast accentuate the body of the cup, making it a little more milky, the fruitiness/acidity roasts out of the beans pretty quickly and the tastes move towards the chocolaty smoky end of things, a little oak hint in the aftertaste coming from that slow dry process. Gets a bit “roasty” as you approach 2nd crack but its a compliment, really adds some nice depth with the more oaky chocolaty feature set.

Roasting Notes: Good from light to dark. If looking for a drip/pour-over keep it light-medium. Keeps those exotic fruity highlights and is smooth and defined. If using it for a jazzy single origin espresso or blend base, medium-dark is the way to go, much more neutral chocolaty with some nutty/oaky accents.  Higher chaff and even roasting for a slow dry natural. A very fun coffee to play with.

Mantiqueira de Minas:
Located on the northern side of the Serra da Mantiqueira mountain range in the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais, the Mantiqueira de Minas region is a demarcated area of 25 municipalities. It is officially recognized as an Indication of Origin for its tradition and worldwide reputation of producing coffees with unique sensory profiles.

Most producers in the region are smallholders who operate family farms. The region is differentiated by the unique terrain and the resulting characteristics that the terroir leads to in the cup. Coffees from Mantiqueira de Minas reflect both the place itself and the committed work of its producers. Mantiqueira includes more than 8,200 producers, 82% of whom are smallholders, and 56,000 hectares of mountain land planted with coffee. Most harvesting is still completed manually, and this and other practices keep the regional cultural heritage of coffee farming alive while at the same time pursuing new flavors.