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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Brazil 2004 Cerrado Cupping Competition Photo Gallery; brought by Sweet Maria's.
(Click on the Image)
Brazil 2005 Cerrado Cupping Competition Photo Gallery; brought by Sweet Mari's.
(Click on the Image)
About Us
These are the traditional type of tin "film can" used for ages in coffee. (the other syle was taller tube). These last for many years you can open up a 50 year old sample tin, and the inside is bright and shiny. |
Coffee growing has been in the heart of my family since the end of the 19th century when my great-grandfather began his plantation in the region of Candeias, a town in the south of the state of Minas Gerais. My grandfather continued and increased his father's production, until the 1929 Wall Street crack, which led him to bankruptcy. In 1935, my father, Joao Sidney de Souza Filho, who already had great knowledge about these precious grains, left Candeias and came to work in Campos Altos, in the mid-west of Minas Gerais, a region marked by the Cerrado vegetation. He combined his experience with the knowledge of various important producers and traders of this town, helping to settle, since then, the coffee tradition in the region.
Drafted
by the Brazilian Army due to World War II, my father served four years
in the allied fronts of Italy and thirteen months under the command of
the United States Army, struggling against Nazi-fascism in the battle
fields of Livorno. In the end of this honorable campaign, my father left
the Army and returned to Campos Altos, increasing even more his coffee
knowledge, by then working on his own in both production and coffee trading.
Presently, at the age of eighty-two, still strong and determined, he is
one of the most respectable producers of this region, now completely adequate
for the growth of fine, high-quality coffee.
The nose. My friend Bruno Souza judges the wet aroma of the crust. We were giving him a hard time because he dipped his nose into the grounds a couple times. It happens. |
I was born in Campos Altos and lived there until 1974, when I left for college, without ever losing contact with my father's coffee activities. Graduated in Physical Education in 1984, I returned to my hometown, loyal to my true talent, taking over the conduction of my family's business, producing and trading coffee. In 1991, the group that created the Cafe do Cerrado was formed. This type of coffee was soon acclaimed by specialists for its quality. Due to the well defined seasons, uniform fruit maturation and sunlight abundance during harvest, the grains absorb and conserve a distinct aroma and a sweet pulp taste in a unique process in the whole world, producing a full-bodied coffee, with correct acidity, being increasingly used in blends of Gourmet or special coffees, indispensable in espresso coffee garters.