‘Fudge, Red Fruit, Honey Sweetness, Hazelnut’

Minas Gerais is the largest of the three major Brazilian growing regions with six micro-regions, which account for 50 percent of Brazil’s production. From this volume of coffee, we landed on a special treat traceable to a single estate in the Cerrado micro-region, which is known for its rolling hills and uneven terrain lending to farms that are small to medium in size. Inácio Carlos Urban started planting coffee in the region nearly 50 years ago and has grown the estate called Fazenda Rio Brilhante to nearly 6,400 acres. While this estate seems big, it is actually medium in size by Brazilian standards, which has allowed the Urban family to focus on specialty grade, fully traceable lots for direct trade relationships. But we don’t want to downplay the big things happening at Fazenda Rio Brilhante like the 2,200 acres of preservation land. During the harvest coffee cherries are floated to remove less dense and damaged coffee, and then placed on patios to pre-dry before being moved to mechanical driers to precisely finish the drying to 11 percent moisture. After drying, the coffee is carefully stored until it is time for milling and export.