Brazilian Sao Joao (Natural) Arabica coffee roasted to order

The Brazilian São João is a naturally processed coffee, sourced from Maurnic, via SMC specialty coffees.

They grow a lot of coffee in Brazil

Brazil is the largest producer of coffee by far. With over 60% of their crop Arabica, they are also the largest producer of Arabica and the second largest of Robusta (Vietnam is the largest). There are many myths about how coffee came to Brazil, but what is important is that it came in the mid-1700s. Since then, it has become a major export crop, which dominates the world markets. The commodity price (the base price) of coffee is almost entirely linked to the fortunes of the Brazilian crop. Especially relevant is their Arabica crop, which represents more than the next 5 biggest producers.

Brazilian Specialty

While Brazil is well known for its commodity coffees, a focus by some of the farmer-run co-operatives has meant there is more and more focus on producing quality coffee, that has minimum minor defects and can stand out on a table with other coffees. We have witnessed how different a farmer that is driven to produce quality approaches his coffee. Rather than it just being another crop, here care is taken to maximize the quality output from their trees and land. This requires an investment in time and money, and the result is not always guaranteed. In Brazil, farmers focused on quality are able to get up to 30% of their crop to be good enough to pass the strict controls set down by SCA WRT specialty coffee (read more about specialty coffee here…). This is an amazing achievement, over double the world’s average.

Since the farms are at least 10 times bigger than the world’s average, this means that Brazilian specialty represents some of the best value for money, even if it is only double the price of your standard commodity-grade coffee.

SMC Specialty

Created by Cooxupé, the largest coffee cooperative in the world, SMC Specialty is a company whose mission, it is, to praise the talent and efforts coffee farmers make in order to achieve excellence. SMC builds direct relationships with the specialty coffee producers at its origin. They believe in uniting people through coffee, and we are proud of being in the market for 10 years working in this increasing segment and always with transparency and responsibility.

SMC Specialty has a code of ethical conduct, which they see as the root of how they do business. While we have not visited them, we take them at their word, since we trust Marunic Trading as a partner.

Bachião Family

Bachião Family came from Italy to Brazil at the end of 19th century. Osvaldo’s grandfather went to Varginha City in 1914 where he heard about a great piece of land in another region that would be better to invest. The family went to Nova Resende where there were no producers so far, and that’s why he can be called a pioneer in the coffee cultivation there. In 1925 the patriarch managed to acquire a machine to process the coffee and all the product was shipped by train, in an old railway called “Mogiana” in the district of “Jureia”.

Back in 1938, Mr. Osvaldo’s father expanded the business, buying more land, and he started to fabricate cachaça, a very common alcoholic drink in Brazil made with sugar cane (which they don’t produce any more). In 1964 Mr. Osvaldo Bachião split the lands to his son, Osvaldo Bachião Filho, and taught his teenager grandson how to be a farmer.

Even though the farm has parts that are mountainous and also of higher altitude than typical in Brazil, they have mechanised most of the harvest. Harvesting machines are selective, and they collect only ripe fruit, leaving the green ones until they are ready. The machines work each area two or three times, to ensure only the ripe coffee cherries are selected. There are 9 permanent employees that work all year around and another 15 are hired during harvesting season.

A method of cultivation called Precision Farming is used on the farm. This method provides for more accurate agricultural management, considering each part of the land that has a different profile and different needs when it comes to fertilisers and inputs. In so doing, each section of the land has its own individual cultivation plan. Knowing where and when procedures must be done helps the farmer have a better understanding of their production.

The Arabica Red Bourbon varietal usually achieves very high quality standards.

Brazilian São João (mircolot)

The coffee we are offering is from a 100x30kg microlot of the Red Bourbon varietal from Fazenda São João produced by Osvaldo Bachião. SMC cupped this coffee and scored it 86, with sensory notes of Grapes, Strawberries, Wine and sweetness.

Our brews:

Transparency Information

Sources:

• SMC documentation on Fazenda São João