Joel’s Blog
Poço Fundo. I went back to Coopfam today to close the deal with Luis Adauto. This fair-trade competition winner is a wonderful coffee and I look forward to sharing it with you when it arrives. Naturally processed, sweet, full bodied, rounded acidity and a wonderful melon fruit in the aftertaste.
I asked BSCA president Gabriel Carvalho Dias if those in the Brazilian coffee industry were aware of Carmo’s quality during the IBC days. (Instituto Brasileiro do Cafe – a government entity that, for brevity’s sake, controlled Brazilian coffee exports in order to control world market prices and in doing so […]
A quick look into the back roasting and prep room after the Cup of Excellence was over. Here are some of the samples. Also the Probatino Roaster.
This afternoon the COE international jury visited Fazenda Sertãozinho.
Carmo de Minas. Carmo de Minas has become famous over the past few years for the quality of their coffees. Their dominance in the Brazilian Cup of Excellence and the high demand from their coffees has created and then embellished this fame. Joao and Paulinho, cuppers from Cocarive, along with […]
Carmo de Minas. I attended a lecture today at Cocarive by Luiz Gonzaga de Castro, an economics professor from Lavras. The subject was minimizing risk, though Castro also addressed the issue of the ever-falling dollar. The lecture was quite good, with the charismatic Castro explaining the financial markets associated with […]
Poco Fundo. If Thomas Jefferson were alive, he would be enthralled with Poco Fundo. Or maybe he has been reincarnated in the form of Coop president and Luiz Adauto de Oliveira.
Poco Fundo. It’s odd to introduce a farm with a picture of the soil instead of a nice panoramic view, or even a picture of the farm sign. But this is what, I feel, Adauto is most proud of. He explained to me how this was “live” soil. In farms […]
Vicosa. If you are going to spend time in Brazil, you will quickly realize that buffets (called Self-Service in proper Portuguese) are the way to go. The food in Brazil seems to have more flavor than we are accustomed to in the US and its easy to get carried away. […]
Vicosa. Maximum production of the coffee plant occurs in its second and third years of growth. This is a relatively new technique (4 yrs) that capitalizes on this. Coffee is planted and then harvested every two years by stumping the plant (cutting it off at the base).