Brazil - leading the fourth wave?

We have written many blog posts this season about our friends and partners, Carmo Coffees, in Brazil. With each and every post, my desire to visit Carmo de Minas grew. When they announced that the World Brewers Cup would be held in Brazil, my heart leapt. It meant I could also visit Santuario Sul. Cupping the first releases from this farm earlier this year, my reaction was like most others at the table: “hey, are you sure this is Brazil?” I couldn’t wait to see the plants and the process in action.

4th coffee wave?

I visited the Santuario Sul farm in early November, a quiet time of the year for this part of Brazil. There was no noise coming from the processing machine, no workers around carrying cherries. Instead the team were preparing land for another season while cupping and reviewing this year’s harvest.

While things might have been chill on the farm, they were very exciting on the table. This year Brazil has surprised us all, importers, roasters and competitors alike. What’s happening in Brazil right now could be called fourth coffee wave. Well-resourced Brazilian producers are harnessing new technology, experimenting with different processing techniques, and planting new varieties. This is to discover new taste profiles, improve the longevity of their coffee, and create replicable systems that ensure quality coffee every harvest.

Carmo Coffees are among those pioneering new fermentation methods and varieties. On their farm, Santuario Sul, they have created a coffee garden with over 25 varieties of coffee. So far, we have tasted Sudan Rume and SL28. We expect to see even more varieties this coming harvest.

Santuario Sul

Coffee nursery of exotic varieties, Santuario Sul

Geisha plants on Santuario Sul

Young Tanzania variety plants, Santuario Sul

Laurina variety plant, Santuario Sul

Coffee nursery, Santuario Sul

Brazil on TOP!

Clean, bright with candy-intense fruitiness, the coffees I cupped on my visit possessed none of the notes I have come to expect from Brazilian coffees. On the table were new varieties: Sudan Rume, Geisha, SL28, Yirgacheffe, Laurina, and Tanzania, featuring new fermentation methods. These profiles have caught the attention of competitors, who presented these beans on the world stage during the World Brewers Cup 2018 with great success. The winning brew, presented by Emi Fukahori from Switzerland, was a Brazilian Laurina, a variety famous for its lower caffeine content.

Looking for competition coffee?

Are you looking for something unique and astounding to present on stage? Something to spice up your offering? As a fellow competitor I have some advice for you! We will receive the very first harvest of SL28, new variety Yirgacheffe and Sudan Rume processed with anaerobic fermentation. Limited quantities are available, exclusive for coffee lovers willing to experiment along with the producers! Interested? Contact me for details, and order your samples now!

Brazil: competitions & competition coffee

If you are a coffee competitor, or an avid fan of coffee competitions, your eyes will be on Brazil from November 7 to 9. Belo Horizonte will host this year’s International Coffee Week, which will feature not one but four world coffee championships:

• World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship

• World Latte Art Championship

• World Cup Tasters Championship

• World Brewers Cup

Veronika wows the (CCS) judges while training for her upcoming World Brewers Cup performance. Before her competition, Veronika will visit Carmo Coffees to cup some of their exciting new experimental lots.

Brazil - the new origin for competition coffees

Our own Veronika Galova Vesela will be there, both as a competitor, and to source competition coffees for 2019.   

These events could not come at a better time for Brazil’s specialty coffee producers, like our partners in the region, Carmo Coffees. Carmo have been experimenting for several years with exotic varieties and innovative fermentation techniques, and just launched their own series of unique and surprising coffees, worthy of competition. That’s right, Brazil is producing competition coffee. 

CCS will be cheering for two competitors in the World Brewers Cup this year: Veronika, who will represent her home country Slovakia, brewing Finca Deborah, and Tom Kuyken, the Norwegian champion, who will brew an anaerobic Sudan Rume from Carmo Coffee’s experimental farm, Santuario Sul. 

The farm, which began almost five years ago, is a collaboration between Luiz Paulo Pereira, producer and exporter with Carmo Coffees, Camilo Merizalde, the pioneering Colombian behind the Santuario project, and fermentation expert, Ivan Solis, from Costa Rica. Santuario Sul currently has 30 hectares of land in coffee production, and they aim to expand to 70 hectares very soon. 

New varieties 

Santuario Sul features 25 different varietals, making it the biggest coffee garden in Brazil. Last year they harvested a their first crop of Sudan Rume. This year saw the first harvest of SL28. 

Innovative Processing

As the new trees began producing fruit, the team began to experiment with processing, including anaerobic fermentation. Rather than import expensive equipment from overseas, they looked in their own backyard. Carmo de Minas is dairy country — Luiz Paulo's grandmother is as famous for her cows as she is for coffee — so they bought a fermentation tank used for cheese making. 

The closed steel tanks are easy to clean and feature double walls and temperature controls, which Ivan Solís adapted to the exact temperature range required for coffee processing. The tank used on Santuario Sul can process 2000 liters of cherries at a time - around ten bags of green coffee.

Ivan Solis (right), fermentation and processing expert from Costa Rica, and Alessandro "Viola", processing manager at Irmas Pereira with the adapted cheese making fermentation tank used for anaerobic processing on several Carmo Coffees farms.

The ANAEROBIC PROCESS at SANTUARIO SUL

The cherries are hand-picked to ensure perfect maturity, then washed to remove any juice excreted during the picking process which can significantly reduce the clarity in the cup. 

The team then measure the Brix levels of the cherries. If they are higher than 23, the cherries are used for anaerobic fermentation. If the Brix levels are lower than 23, they are destined to become naturals.  

The selected cherries are placed in the adapted dairy tank for 60 hours without any movement, then the tank is opened to check the PH level. When the PH of the mucilage inside the fermenting cherries reaches 4.5, it is time to take them out. 

After fermentation the cherries are removed and left to dry with the cascara still intact. Drying takes between 18 to 21 days, depending on the weather. The resulting cup is the perfect combination of washed and natural: clean, bright, full of fruit and sweetness. 

Learn more about the Santuario Sul project. 

Competing with Brazilians

Brazil is better known for espressos and blenders, than head-turning micro-lots, but Tom Kuyken is not the only barista who will present a Brazilian coffee this year. The location of the competitions has inspired many a coffee competitor to take a second look at this origin.

Finding your competition coffee

Are you looking for that stunning coffee to wow the judges in an upcoming competition? Check out our Competition Coffee offering, and get in touch with Veronika to book your lot now. 

Planning for next year? Before her competition Veronika will visit Carmo Coffees, to cup and learn, and discover those gems for shipment in 2019. Plus, we are thrilled to announce we will soon distribute Finca Deborah coffee, and we can expect more delicious surprises from our friends at La Palma y El Tucán, so stay tuned for exciting arrivals in the coming year.