Brazil – Campo Alegre - Espresso

About This Coffee

The cool, green hills of Sul de Minas provide ideal conditions for growing coffee. No wonder some of Brazil's best specialty lots come from this region. The region is locally known as 'Vertentes' and forms the border between two important deltas in Brazil: the Grande River delta (towards the south) and the São Francisco River delta (towards the north-east). Henrique Dias Cambraia, owner and manager of Fazenda Campo Alegre, is the 4th generation on this plantation. Together with his brother and sister, he has been running the company since 1993. The plantation house, built in 1825, was completely restored in 2006. He attributes the plantation's success to a combination of factors: the plantation's location at 1200 meters altitude, a stable climate with an average of 21 degrees, skilled technical management of the plantation and fields, and the continuous training of staff based on its own quality control programs. Located around Santo Antônio do Amparo, the farm produces different varieties of Arabica coffee, including this Catucai, a hybrid between Icatu and Catuai. This variety comes in a red and yellow variant and has a high resistance to Roya (coffee rust). The so-called single-origin lots are carefully kept separate to obtain a high traceability. After picking, the ripe berries are laid out to dry in the sun on patios, after which the beans are crushed from the dried berries and further processed. This method ensures a sweet and fruity character of the coffee.