"Coffee Maker" Deyvid Leandro and his Fazenda Esperança

Deyvid Leandro is one of Brazil’s top “coffee makers,” professionals who, much like a winemaker, transform the realities of each coffee harvest into a unique portfolio of flavor profiles to meet ever-changing market demand. This month we feature a lot of Catuai 99 from Deyvid’s own farm in Campos Altos, Fazenda Esperança.

In our last interview, we talked about the Cerrado Mineiro going from an "also ran" to consistently being a competitor to win the Cup of Excellence. This year I would like to focus more on your personal journey in coffee and your vision for the future in terms of processing and genetics. 

You have made a name for yourself by producing great coffees in partnership with other farms. This year we are featuring coffees from your own farm, Fazenda Esperança. Can you tell us about the farm?

Fazenda Esperança is a farm in my hometown of Campos Altos. My grandfather Jose Maria and my uncle were the owners of Esperança. In 2021 my grandfather decided to pass the ownership of the farm to me. Given my successful partnership with Danilo Barbosa, I invited him to partner with me on this project. Fazenda Esperança is 28 hectares of Catuai 99 at an altitude of 1200 meters and truly has one of the best microclimates in the Cerrado.

You are a native of Campos Altos but spent a good amount of time living in Canada. What made you go to Canada? How do you think that experience impacted your coffee-making?

My sister and I moved to Canada to live with my father, who had become a Canadian citizen. We went to high school and college in Toronto. Being from a family of coffee growers in Campos Altos, from the time of my arrival, I was curious about Canadians’ relationship with coffee. Living in Canada for a long time helped me understand coffee consumers and their habits. And also how coffee lovers there really appreciated the diverse flavors of specialty coffee, I also noticed that Brazilian coffee largely had a bad reputation, one of quantity over quality. While perhaps some of it was deserved at the time, it really bothered me. Those experiences—seeing people appreciate specialty coffee at a profound level and seeing people writing off Brazil—really lit a fire. So I came back to Brazil in 2012 and started my work with coffee growers in Cerrado Mineiro.

Is this year's coffee a straight natural process?
It is … a straight old-fashioned natural process. When I cupped this lot in our pre-harvest  analysis, it performed best as a natural process. Sometimes we try to push one way or another through fermentation or drying, but in this case, it was just a great example of a beautiful natural coffee from Campos Altos, so that’s what we went with. 

This lot is a Catuai 99, a common cultivar here in Brazil. We have seen a lot of people talking about Arara and Paraiso as bringing more flavor to the cup. What are some of the cultivars now appearing in Brazil that you find interesting?

Arara and Paraíso MG2 are getting great results in terms of quality, but other cultivars are also really good too; for example, Catiguá, Catucai 2SL, and Geisha. 

How about different cultivars processed in different ways? Is it as simple as "Mundo Novo is better as a natural?" If not, what are some of the additional factors that lead you to choose one processing method over another?

The flavors largely depend on three main factors: genetics, terroir, and process. I work with four farms in four different micro-regions of the Cerrado Mineiro. The same process with the same cultivar gives different taste profiles at each of them, so terroir definitely has a huge hand in determining the final cup profile. Each harvest, we learn more and take those experiences into the following harvest. I don’t know where we ultimately arrive in terms of dialing it in, but it’s a beautiful journey—one that we enjoy and hope that others are enjoying with us. 

Thanks so much, Deyvid, for taking the time here and for once again delivering a spectacular lot.