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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Brazilian Coffee News
Nature Natured: Coffees of Brazil's Cerrado Rigion
Fresh Cup Magazine March 13, 2006
By Julie Beals,
New life emerges from a small crack in a coffee-drying patio Far from any ocean, nestled in Brazil’s interior state of Minas Gerais, is where 75 percent of Brazil’s famous Arabica coffees are born. “God created this spot for growing coffee,” says Bruno Souza, president of Beccor coffee importers. The climate is different from most other origins, as with its lack of proximity to large bodies of water, and yet the latitude and average 3,000-foot elevation are ideal for coffee cultivation.
Cerrado is fairly unique, flat terrain. Circular, overhead (pivot) irrigation
like this is common, but drip/emitter irrigation is being introduced,
the problem being that the cost of hosing is very high. Also, coffee has
deep and wide root patterns, so hose irrigation must account for this.
But this, the heart of what is now Brazil’s coffee belt, hasn’t always been. As the story goes, someone planted coffee in Cerrado in the early 1970s, just to see what would come of it. People thought the experiment was crazy: Picture the great grasslands of Africa, and you’ll know the climate conditions the coffee stands were up against. Summers in Cerrado are rainy, and winters are very dry and warm, with an average annual temperature of 73 degrees. And the soil? Well, it was good for growing grass.
As we know, the coffee survived, and with the help of soil amendment
and limited irrigation, some of the world’s most sought-after coffees
are produced here, particularly in micro-regions at 3,900 feet to 4,300
feet.
It’s true that the Cerrado region has been engineered to produce
fine coffees. Soil in Cerrado is well structured but lacks organic material
such as nitrogen and calcium. It is iron-rich, but out of balance. Agronomists
analyze and alter soil conditions to fit the dietary needs of coffee plants,
creating custom formulations for each farm, sometimes even for separate
plots on one farm.
Coffee skin (casca), parchment (pergamino) and muscilage are used with
other organic materials to create a rich mulch that is returned to the
plants.
And then there’s that ugly word “irrigation” again,
a requirement in the drier months. But distrust of human ingenuity (as
perceived as defiance of nature) isn’t entirely deserved in this
case. Only 20 percent of Cerrado’s crops are under irrigation—mainly
overhead—as “crop insurance,” for when the rains don’t
come.
The stark contrast between rainy and dry seasons actually benefits the cup characteristics of Brazils. Cerrado enjoys very strong flowering as the wet season yields to very dry and hot winter conditions. This results in the bold cup expected from fine Brazils, with medium to strong body, mild acidity and strong chocolate notes.
New Wave Agro: Well, agri. This is a massive automated harvester. In this
terrain, mechanical picking does a better job of ripe cherry selection
than the strip-pick technique of humans. And because Cerrado features
one simultaneous, strong flowering, the machine suits both the terrain
and crop cycle of the region. It isn’t appropriate in many other
coffee-growing areas, even in Brazil.
There’s science to the coffee of Cerrado, “but you won’t
find indiscriminate use of chemicals and pesticides or aerial spraying,”
says Thompson Owen, co-owner of Sweet Maria’s Coffee. He adds that
pure organic coffees are probably impossible here because of the soil
conditions. But soil amendment is practiced discreetly, and extensive
composting techniques and non-competing ground cover between coffee plants
are also used.
Even mechanized harvesting may have a bad rap. Owen has witnessed the
harvest in Brazil and other origins a handful of times. In his experience,
it’s amazing how well mechanical harvesters can work with respect
to the health of the trees and the cherries.
“They work better than hand harvesting in some regions—though
not everywhere,” he says. “The machines just knock off ripe
cherry—a beautiful harvest—while hand picking can result in
stripping.”
Children of coffee farmers have a “fun-and-games” day at school
before a holiday weekend.
Together, the gifts of nature and human ingenuity in Cerrado have reaped
fantastic results. At last year’s World Barista Championship, the
first- and third-place finishers (Troels Overdal Poulsen of Denmark and
Sammy Piccolo of Canada, respectively) used coffee from Cerrado in their
blends, and second-place winner Hiroyuki Kadowaki of Japan used 100 percent
Cerrado.
Semi-washed (or eco-washed) coffees produce a lighter-bodied cup. Cup
of Excellence winners are typically semi-washed, as they conform to a
more delicate, clean profile or a European cup standard. “I’ll
always score semi-washed coffees higher,” says Thompson Owen of
Sweet Maria’s. “But I’ll buy the naturals too, because
that’s where the amazing Brazilian character is found, the full
body, with more solids in the coffee.” Semi-washed Cerrados generally
are grown at 3,900 feet to 4,300 feet (the exquisite micro-regions), says
Owen. Naturals tend to be at 3,000 feet, producing good body and chocolate
in their own right.
What’s in a Cup?
Cerrado Coffees:
Aroma: intense with notes of caramel and nuts
Acidity: slightly citric
Body: moderate to medium-heavy
Flavor: sweet, often with chocolate notes
Finish: long.
Souza (who owns a coffee farm in Cerrado himself) and other loyalists
claim that espresso is at its best when a Cerrado coffee is in the mix
instead of robusta, highlighting the notes of the other coffees in the
blend and producing a respectable crema.
According to such purists (as highlighted in Richard Reynolds’ audit
of the debate in Fresh Cup’s 2005 Coffee Almanac), robusta can be
eliminated, along with the possible bitterness associated with it. (Illy’s
espresso blend is purportedly 70 percent Brazil, most of it from Cerrado.)
Owen agrees. “I just cupped some single-origin espressos, and the
crema from the Brazils’ pulp natural or semi-washed is unbelievable,”
he says. “And not just the amount of crema, but the viscosity and
tightness of the bubbles—they last a long time—and mouthfeel.
It’s fantastic.” He notes that naturals in Cerrado are often
ripened and dried right on the tree because the weather changes are so
dramatic (again, producing powerful flowering, when seasons change from
wet to very dry and warm). “It won’t win Cup of Excellence,
but will have tons of body, chocolate and fruit. Perfectly exotic for
espresso flavor.”
Fighting counterfeits
Who can resist a face like this?.
Though Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee (hovering
around 50 percent of world market share), the pictures of giant farms
on high plateaus—with rows of coffee trees that trucks can drive
between—are misleading. Seventy percent of coffee farmers in Brazil
are smallholders, as is the case for most of Cerrado’s 3,000 farms
over 335,000 acres. “They are the same sort of farmers you’d
picture in Central America,” says Ensei Neto, a consultant at Specialty
Coffees Bureau.
TREE TRIM: These 30-year-old Catuai trees were cut to a stump one year
before. The cut, which is standard practice in coffee cultivation, ranges
from every seven years to as may as 10, but a coffee tree simply won’t
produce when most of its growth is woody. Coffee cherry comes from blooms
on the herbacious part of the branch, the new growth. There are less dramatic
trimmings done each year, including a “skeleton” cut that
trims the tree to its bones but does not reduce the height like the seven-year
cut.
As with coffees from other touted regions—Jamaica Blue Mountain or Kona, for example—Cerrado’s producers know that coffees from similar regions could be passed off as Cerrado. To combat such counterfeiting, the region’s growers are pinning their hopes on a certification system to protect the value and integrity of their coffees. As a result of this effort, Cerrado Mineiro is in effect the first geographical denomination of coffee in the world under World Intellectual Property Organization rules.
With so many smallholders in the region, the Minas Gerais government recently launched Brazil’s first official certification for coffee production. The program has three major components: norms of process, including agronomic, social and environmental requirements; coffee quality based on the SCAA’s specialty coffee cupping standards (the most important price-compounding factor); and a model of inclusion that offers access to any size of producer in the region.
The world’s largest coffee-producing country is also the second-largest
consumer, downing 15 million bags worth of the brown stuff annually. Only
the United States consumes more, at 15 million to 18 million bags per
year.
But could Brazil’s consumption catch up with that of the United
States? If the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC) has its way,
it will. ABIC is promoting the specialty coffee market in Brazil, with
the opening of sleek, modern coffeehouses that appeal to younger Brazilians:
20- and 30-somethings who already are keen on trends in other parts of
the world. Rapidly cropping up in urban centers, the cafés are
cultivating the palates of a new legion of discerning consumers.
But all of these standards and analysis will be for naught if circumvented
by dishonest importers or exporters. For that reason, each bag of Cerrado
coffee is fitted with an impossible-to-tear, Tyvek-like tag. The tag carries
an official seal of the region and a barcode that ensures traceability
back to the farm and lot level.
Neto, who oversees the certification program, says, “This kind of
government effort is crucial to allow the producers to get fair prices
for their coffees and assure their future.” If it works, the program
will guarantee that any bag of coffee emblazoned with the word “Cerrado”
is in fact from the region, and therefore, that the specific quality,
environmental and social commitments of the region are represented and
can be counted upon by buyers.
TONKA TRUCKS: Coffee in parchment is hauled from farms to the mill in these handsomely customized rigs. The lines running to the hubs are air lines, controlled from the cab. When the trucks are empty, the air pressure is optimized, as when fully loaded. The weight difference with these kinds of coffee loads is so great, and fuel is so expensive in Brazil, that it makes a lot of sense.
Brazil’s coffee industry exemplifies maximization of quality with
the natural elements and science at its disposal. Final case in point:
Brazil’s January 10 Cup of Excellence Internet auction is the new
record to beat, having brought a record price of $49.75 per pound. The
coffee came from Carmo de Minas (gruposertao.com.br) in South Minas, a
sister region to Cerrado.
Records are made to be broken, and the longer they stand, the more likely
they become the stuff of legend. From great grasslands to an equally great
(and formerly implausible) cuppa, a new generation of Brazilian specialty
coffees has been conceived. And the world can’t help but take notice.