Coffee Of The Month: Brazil
Our Coffee of the Month is Brazil Eldorado. Part of the Rainforest Alliance, the farm it is grown on is family run and currently farmed by Mr. Laerce Franca Faleiros, who is married to Mrs Maria Lucia Vilhena. Both families come from long traditions of producing wonderful coffee. As a farm in Brazil, they are part of a huge story of great importance to the industry – undoubtably, if you have tried speciality coffee, at some point you would have had a cup of Brazilian. The general tasting profile for coffee from Brazil is low in acidity, heavy bodied and often you will find notes of caramel, nuts and chocolate. It is on the sweeter side, and I often hear people say it is their favourite origin – after all, what’s not to like?
The history of the coffee industry is a mixture of innovative production as well as some of the really dark moments of history. The whole industry in Brazil encapsulates this. Its climate and land is a perfect environment for the coffee plant to grow, and this is the reason it is such a huge part of the coffee industry with 220,000 farms, 2 million hectares of land making up around 25% of the whole world’s current production (only recently decreased from 30%). It is a dominating presence in the industry.
Allegedly, coffee landed in Brazil as part of a love story. In 1727, Francisco de Malo Palheta travelled to French Guiana, seduced a governor’s wife, who then snuck some coffee seeds to him as a parting gift. On return to his home, he then planted the seeds and started using the coffee. The spread of wild plants and farmed plants then developed from there. At first it was all for domestic use, it then became a commercial commodity and by around 1830 it made up 30% of the world’s coffee production. This enormous growth, and with it the desire to create profit and maximise supply, led to a bleak situation of thick with stories of colonialism, destruction to rainforest and exploitation.
Although this is really bleak, the good news is that the rise of the speciality coffee has seen a change to a lot of these issues and provides farmers with an opportunity to make some real positive changes.
To improve things, part of the role of the speciality sector is to highlight the importance of looking after the land it is grown on and the people that have the knowledge and ability to produce it at its best. This also means pricing the coffee realistically, to reflect how much it costs to produce it. Without addressing this, our beloved coffee drink has an uncertain future, and none of us want that!
Let’s circle back to our Coffee of the Month, with Mr. Laerce Franca Faleiros and Mrs Maria Lucia Vilhena who are clever and strategic in their processing, working with various way to naturally process and maximise flavours, including use of fermentation and honey process. Their farm continues to be developed by the family, as their son Elvis has taken on management. They are known as pioneers in the transparency of their commercial relationships with producers, whilst also reaching high grades on the “SCA cupping methodology”. We at LeeCoffee love their story, and their coffee is one of the most popular ones we stock.
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Written by Anna, in response to listening to “A brief History of Coffee” and “Adventures with Coffee” Podcasts, and also “The World Atlas of Coffee” by James Hoffmann. Quotes and information taken also from “Small Batch Roaster Supplies” about ElDorado Farm.