Brazil Daterra Petit Soleil

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 it 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, development 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. The beans are left to almost fully dry on a large concrete patio before being finished in a Guardiola to ensure consistency throughout the lot. Pulped raisins are the ripe but slightly drier, sweeter beans that also get directed to the natural side of the initial processing mill, where their sizes let them fall in to different silos before being carefully pulped to remove the bean. Pulped (or semi washed) coffees are directed to specially built and carefully calibrated waterjet silos, where the bean inside is forced from the cherry at a different water pressure as a way of ensuring precise maturation levels of cherry.