Explore Brazil: January 2023

This month we Explore Brazil with our Bossa Blend, the Montanhas do Espírito Santo region, and award-winning grower and long-time Casa Brasil partner Dério Brioschi and his farm, Sítio dos Cedros.

Brazilian Blend: Bossa

This month’s featured coffee—our signature medium roast, Bossa Blend—is crafted with its namesake music in mind. Bossa Nova originated in Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s with João Gilberto, Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Morães, Luiz Bonfá, and others. It is characterized by soothing, lilting melodies with evocative lyrics: “Tall and tan and young and lovely; Vai minha tristeza; Manhã, tão bonita manhã…” But behind the deceptively simple and low-key music are syncopated beats and complex chords that bring satisfying nuance beyond the typical 1/4/5 progressions.

A statue of composer Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim, Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro

Bossa Nova is quintessentially Brazilian, a kind of blues whose lyrics are at home not in the Mississippi Delta, but on the beaches of Ipanema, Leblon, or Copacabana. It is the certain je ne sais quoi (or não se o que) that Brazilian architect Nieyemer added to Le Corbusier to create a modernism that was uniquely Brazilian. It is the intertwining of Europe and Africa with influences from North America. It is the Brazilian pace, not hurried or aggressive, but taking life as it comes—always making sure to take time for a cafezinho.

And this is what we bring to Bossa Blend, a coffee that is light and soothing with subtle, complex flavors that are quintessentially Brazilian. The melody—smooth, sweet, and light–through flavors of caramel and citrus, flavors that derive from carefully curated Brazilian pulped natural coffees grown at higher altitudes or colder climates that enhance the blend’s sweetness and bring citric notes. The complex chords are the subtle notes of pecan and ripe berries, classic qualities of quality Brazilian coffees. Overtones of fruit and berry derive from the slow, controlled drying of natural processing–the most common processing method in Brazil–where a light fermentation occurs, imparting complex fruity notes to the coffee.

Regional Blend: Montanhas do Espírito Santo

Espírito Santo produces a lot of coffee: around 16.721 million sixty-kilo bags last harvest, according to Brazil’s Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento (CONAB). Only the mighty Minas Gerais, with its 21.960 million bags, produces more, with São Paulo a distant third at 4.387 million bags. To put this into perspective, if Espírito Santo were a country, it would be the third largest coffee producer in the world after only Brazil and Vietnam and ahead of well-known origins like Colombia and Indonesia.

Despite its vast production, Espírito Santo is not nearly as well known as its neighbor, Minas Gerais, let alone coffee origins such as Colombia and Indonesia. Perhaps this is because most of its production is low-quality Canephora coffee that is mainly consumed in Brazil rather than exported abroad. Of the 16.721 million bags produced last year, all but 4.363 million were Canephora. (While Robusta is the commonly-used term to define all coffees of the Coffea Canephora species, Brazil, and in particular Espírito Santo, mainly produce Canephora of the Conilon lineage, which is distinct from the Robusta lineage.)

A view of western Espírito Santo from Pedra Azul

However, Espírito Santo has long produced some of Brazil’s best Arabica coffee, mainly in the mountains along the state’s western border with Minas Gerais, a region characterized by high altitudes, steep slopes, and abundant rainfall. Because of this unique terroir and its resulting high-quality coffees, the region was recently awarded a Denomination of Origin (DO) certification from the Brazilian government as the Montanhas do Espírito Santo. A DO is awarded to “the geographic name of a country, city, region or locality in its territory, which designates a product or service whose qualities or characteristics are due exclusively or essentially to the geographic environment, including natural and human factors.” The  DO comprises sixteen municipalities spread over 8,438 km² (3,258 mi²). The qualities attributed to the region are as follows: “The pulped coffees have flavors of cane molasses, red fruits, caramel, chocolate, spices, floral, vanilla, citric acidity, bright, liqueur, velvety, intense, and medium body. Natural coffees present flavors of wine, yellow fruits, caramel, chocolate, dulce de leche, spices, honey, lemon balm, pepper, almond, citric acid, bright, liqueur, intense and medium body.”

The Montanhas do Espírito Santo Denomination of Origin. (Source: Indicação Geográfica: Café Montanhas do Espírito Santo, Dias et al., 2021)

Coffee in the region is generally produced on small family farms, owing to the fact that in the early 1900s, the government encouraged European immigration and gave away 25- to 30-hectare land plots on the condition that the land would be used for agricultural production (mainly coffee). This heritage is evident today in the surnames, town names, architecture, and cuisine of the region. Case in point, our featured grower this month is Dério Brioschi from Venda Nova do Imigrante, which is also home to an annual Polenta Festival.

Microlot: Dério Brioschi
I have had the pleasure of teaching over 120 official classes for the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI). One of the main courses I teach is the Q Grader, the course one must take to become a certified coffee quality evaluation professional, also known as a Q Grader. 

Often, students are kind enough to bring their own coffee, sometimes for me to evaluate during the course, but more often than not as a kind gift to their instructor. Usually, the coffees are good but not memorable. 

That was not the case in the course I taught in March 2016. It was during the first days of the course, and I had barely learned all the students' names. One of the students gave me some coffee, and I handed it off to one of the course assistants to brew it later. By the time they did and brought it to me, I was lost in teaching and didn’t think twice about the coffee as the mug sat in front of me.

Then I had a sip. It was one of those coffee experiences where before any descriptors can form on the tongue or even in the mind, you are overwhelmed with a punch of “wow!” It was one of the best coffees I have ever had. Still is. That student, Dério Brioschi, went on to pass the Q Grader and has done so many things in coffee since. He interned at Coffee Lab International under Mané Alves, my Q instructor from many, many years ago and one of coffee’s most well-respected quality evaluation professionals. Dério has won numerous awards from Sítio dos Cedros, and would likely have won many more if coffee competitions were later in the year. Given his unique growing climate, he often is still harvesting his best lots when the competitions are being held. He recently started his own export company, Farmers Coffee, to gain more control over the quality of his coffee and to provide more direct trade opportunities to others in the region. And he has remained a great friend and partner to me and to Casa Brasil Coffees.

A view of the valley at Sítio dos Cedros coffee farm.

After many years, I finally visited Sítio dos Cedros last year. It is a magical experience to visit a place that grows some of the best coffee in the world, coffees I have been enjoying for many years now, and home to that coffee of my unforgettable “wow” moment.

Dério and me (L-R) at Sítio dos Cedros