Brazil Daterra Grutta

Falling within Brazils famous Cerrado that makes up nearly 23% of the entire country, Daterra are the world’s first grade A rainforest certified farm of any business, and a walk around the trees will reveal a stunning array of birds and wildlife, from toucans and burrowing owls to squirrel monkeys and maned wolves. Over 60% of the land they own is given over to nature reserves. The farm itself is split into many lots, each with a designated agronomist to care for the particular varietal and aspect each lot can define. With over 100 different varietals on their farms, progress is tracked, and planting paired with appropriate varietal.

Selective mechanical picking is common in Brazil and occurs typically with 40- 60% ripe coffee on the tree, with 5% green, 10% underripe, and the rest tree dried. A sample will be picked, processed and roasted to check taste is as expected, before the order is given to pick the specific lot. Sorting is done on a specially adapted wet mill, first with density sorting that removes overripes, then with the drier and natural beans being sorted very specifically by size from each lot. Grutta is one of their newer offerings arriving to the market in 2019 and is 100% tree dried natural which means that cherries were left on the trees for a longer time, allowing them to go through the full maturation process and dry while still attached to the branch.

This processing technique is only possible if the weather is very dry and stable during harvest – in fact, in many regions, allowing coffee to dry on tree could be a big problem: the excess moisture can develop fungus and other microorganisms. Because of Cerrados’s unique traits, this process is possible – which is great, because it brings very positive attributes to the cup: tree-dried naturals usually show heavy body and extra-intense sweetness.