Brazil Mantiqueira Mountains (Natural)

This regional Mantiqueira Mountains Yellow Bourbon blend is produced by several smallholder farmers who are members of the COCARIVE cooperative in Carmo de Minas.

In order to be selected for these regional blends, farms must meet a strict set of quality criteria, with balance and sweetness being the key features of this particular coffee.

COCARIVE gives support to its members in all parts of the production chain. Their team of agronomists and technical experts assists with cultivation techniques, machinery, storage and finally commercialization of the beans.

Once parchment is dry, cooperative members send their coffee to the COCARIVE warehouses. The cooperative takes care of grading, commercialization and export. They have their own quality lab and storage and milling facilities in Carmo de Minas.

At the dry mill, where they prepare the coffee for export, COCARIVE has its own laboratory for quality control. Their team of trained cuppers and Q graders makes the first selection based on cup quality. They will verify which lots are suitable and of high enough cup quality for specialty microlots. Their quality control team checks the quality of every lot at a variety of times throughout the dry milling process analyzing both physical green and cup characteristics.

All COCARIVE member farms have the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) certificate. On top of that, they are all certified by the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA). This certificate is a guarantee from BSCA that every aspect of labor at the farm is legal. It also guarantees the implementation of environmentally friendly practices on the farm during all steps of the coffee production process.

History of Coffee in Brazil

American colonists had been drinking coffee for fifty years before the first coffee seed was planted in Brazil in 1727. A hundred years later, Brazil accounted for 30% of the world’s coffee supply. A hundred years after that, in the 1920’s, Brazil held a virtual monopoly, producing 80% of the world’s coffee. Although Brazil’s market share peaked at 80% in the 1920’s, its continuing status as the world’s largest coffee producer still gives the country considerable influence on the market and coffee prices. It is said that when Brazil sneezes, the coffee world catches cold. In 1975, a “black frost” destroyed over 70 percent of the crop in Brazil and coffee prices doubled world-wide. Brazil was a founding member of the Pan-American Coffee Bureau, which invented the concept of a “coffee break,” during an advertising campaign in the early 1950’s.

Growing Coffee in Brazil

The U.S. state of Maryland is not large enough to contain all the coffee plants in Brazil, even if every inch of the state was growing coffee. Over 300,000 coffee farms in 2,000 cities grow coffee in Brazil. Although some of Brazil’s 30 coffee growing regions are home to the world’s largest coffee farms, there are also small and medium sized farms, including those owned and operated by women as part of Olam’s Café Delas initiative. With so much land devoted to coffee, it’s no surprise that over 40 species coffee plant can be found growing in Brazil, but the most common are Yellow Bourbon, Acaia, Yellow Catuai, Red Catuai, and New World. While the amount of washed coffee coming out of Brazil has increased steadily over the years, the vast majority of coffee is still produced using the dry method.