Explore Brazil: April 2023

This April we Explore Brazil, One Cup at a Time, through the lens of tradition: The time-honored Brazilian cafezinho is our featured Brazilian Blend. One of Brazil’s most historic coffee-growing regions, the Sul de Minas, is our featured region. And our featured grower is the Magalhães Paiva family, whose legacy of coffee growing in the Sul de Minas dates back to 1896.

BRAZILIAN BLEND: CAFEZINHO

A traditional cafezinho, served in a copo americano (also called a copo lagoinha)

The cafezinho makes our short list of things that define Brazilian identity. More than just a “little coffee,” as the name states, it is usually served extra strong and with lots of sugar and is a fixture of Brazilian culture. Coffee has been intertwined with Brazil since before it was a country. And through its influence on immigration, city demographics and growth, and vast swaths of countryside, coffee has helped define Brazil’s national identity. But the cafezinho represents a unique aspect of this identity. It is not just the coffee, but rather how that coffee can foster human relationships. This singular beverage has fueled many things over the years—Sufi rituals on the Arabian peninsula, revolution in France, and pushing past the dawn to dusk work day. In Brazil, it largely serves as a call to step outside the routine and enjoy one another’s company. Be it a work colleague in need of respite from deadlines, catching up with an old friend, or greeting a new neighbor, “vamos tomar um cafezinho,” let’s have a little coffee is not about fueling, it’s about connecting. In fact, Brazilian coffee shops often don’t open until mid-morning, well past the pre-workday rush, the time of the day when people can sit and connect over a cafezinho.

Our Cafezinho blend is a gourmet take on this traditional Brazilian beverage. One of our darker roasts, it is bold, with molasses-like sweetness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel—never bitter or burnt.

A traditional cafezinho in Minas Gerais, brewed on a wood-burning stove and served in enamel mugs. 

REGIONAL BLEND: SUL DE MINAS

The Sul de Minas, or Southern Minas, is one of Brazil’s most traditional growing regions. Located in the state of Minas Gerais, it is a macro-region that comprises several distinct terroirs, such as the Mantiqueira de Minas region.

Along with coffee, the region is known for dairy production. In fact, many coffee growers also have dairy cattle on their farms, and it is quite common, and wonderful, to be greeted on the farm with a fresh white cheese. Though we don’t explore the combination much in the U.S., cheese can be a beautiful complement to coffee, enhancing the brightness of a clean pulped natural or bringing out the exotic fruit flavors of complex natural. And of course, there’s the other great cheese-related tradition common in the Sul de Minas: Few combinations are as satisfying as a cafezinho with a pão de queijo. (If you would like to try making some of your own, this link will take you to our own recipe.

Traditional fresh cheese, like that served with a cafezinho.

The Sul de Minas contains hundreds of small towns connected by a countryside of undulating hills populated with cattle grazing in lush hillside pastures. Coffee fields are planted with geometric precision along the contours, and the evening sun illuminates smoke rising in soft plumes from wood stoves in traditional coffee farmhouses in the valleys. There is not a single characteristic—grandiose mountains or profound canyons— that spurs a sense of awe or lends itself to a straightforward characterization of the region’s beauty. Rather it is the amalgamation of these pastoral scenes and the underlying traditions that created them that create a beauty unlike any other.

Our Sul de Minas Regional Blend is a medium/light roast pulped natural coffee with rounded notes of citrus, hints of hazelnut, and a caramel sweetness.

MICROLOT: FAZENDA RECANTO

The coffee fields at Fazenda Recanto

We have been working with the Magalhães Paiva family and their Fazenda Recanto for over 15 years, the blink of an eye for the farm, which has been in the family since 1896. Maria Selma and Afranio are the fourth generation of coffee growers at Recanto, having taken the reins in the 1980s from Maria Selma’s father, José Thales Magalhães. Their daughter, Paula Magalhães Paiva, is also an integral part of the farm’s activities, working on everything from post-harvest processing to running the farm’s roasted coffee line.

There are so many things to say about Recanto in regard to their integrity and the quality of their coffees; over 15 years of working with them, we have come to know both quite well. But this month, I would like to talk about how “quality” seems to permeate through everything at the farm.

Fazenda Recanto has long been known for its coffee quality, having won quality awards as far back as 1922. With the rise of specialty coffee—coffee that is prized and priced for its quality and complex flavors—Recanto has become one of Brazil’s best-known coffee farms. This is not surprising; the beauty and tradition of the farm, combined with their exceptional output, makes them special. This wonderful combination is easily seen on the farm: structures, some of which date back more than a century, house modern post-harvest processing equipment used to develop and enhance the unique flavors sought by modern coffee consumers.

But quality at Recanto goes even deeper. When visiting Recanto, you see it in the buildings and how their design reflects and harmonizes many of the farm’s original structures. You sense it in the employees, many of whom have worked at Recanto for decades and who take pride in knowing they are producing some of Brazil’s best coffees. You taste it in the bread of your sandwich, whose crisp, flakey crust and soft, fluffy crumb reflect the attention to detail you see everywhere. Even in the fruit salad, with each component ripened to perfection and served in a hand-made bowl. Quality is not easy. It requires systems, planning, hard work, and dedication. But more than that, it so often lies in the details and in doing the small things well, day after day, with love, pride, and even a sense of tradition.