Discovery

Clean Expressions

This month’s coffees are excellent examples of crisp and clean profiles, but produced in rather different environments.

In Colombia, Educardo Flores produces a typical washed Colombian style, using careful picking, sorting and fermentation to create clean and crisp lots. This kind of profile is not normally associated with Brazil, but in southern Minas Gerais, Fabiano Diniz is trying to change this. The region of Matas de Minas region sits on the border to the mountainous state of Espírito Santo, near the Caparáo National Park. The high altitude here, along with the Diniz family’s meticulous approach, leads to a profile reminiscent of what we’d expect in Colombia, but produced under rather different conditions.

Colombia

In Colombia, Educardo Flores produces a typical washed Colombian style, using careful picking, sorting and fermentation to create clean and crisp lots. In rural Northern Tolima, much of the coffee produced is of lower quality, sold in wet or dry parchment to local cooperatives to be blended into regional lots. Educardo is one of the founding members of CDNT, a collective aiming to keep more steps of the coffee value chain in the area, empowering the many small producers who live here to produce their own exportable lots and connect more directly with the market.

Brazil

This fresh and clean profile is not normally associated with Brazil, but in southern Minas Gerais, Fabiano Diniz is trying to change this. The region of Matas de Minas sits on the border to the mountainous state of Espírito Santo, near the Caparáo National Park. The high altitude and cool temperatures here lead to slower maturing cherries, which are then picked selectively by hand, unusually for Brazil. This quality raw material is then fermented using a meticulous protocol involving sealed tanks, before drying in cherry for a natural process. This initial fermentation leads to a cleaner and fresher profile than we have tasted in the past from Brazil, a profile that is quickly becoming the Diniz family’s signature.

Fabiano Diniz

Fabiano Diniz’s farm Alto da Serra has been in his family for four generations, so coffee farming is truly in his blood. The farm is a family business, in fact the founder, Fabiano’s great grandfather, still lives close by, and this year celebrated his 84th birthday. It was Fabiano’s father that started the focus on high-quality coffees on the farm, planting quality varietals and investing in processing equipment capable of producing consistent and clean coffees. The farm is located in the Matas de Minas region, close to the Caparaó national park on the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo. This leads to a rather high altitude compared with much of Brazil, over 1400 metres above sea level at its highest point. After our excellent experience with Fabiano’s coffee last year, we were able to visit him in November 2022, just as he was rounding off the harvest and preparing lots for several local and national green coffee competitions. Fabiano and his family’s dedication and passion was truly impressive, and their rise to this stage has been swift. In 2018, Fabiano’s sister Josiane was running the farm alone, producing some excellent lots, but struggling to find buyers. Fabiano’s father was working as a commercial coffee buyer, and Fabiano was a truck driver. The family made a conscious decision to work more closely together, continuing with their quality work on the farm, but also building links with buyers willing to invest in their philosophy. The main way they did this was through green coffee competitions, initially on a local level, but now also in competitions for the whole of Brazil. These competitions, while pushing the level of quality on the farm, also enabled connections with buyers willing to pay a premium for high-end Brazilian coffees. It was through one of these competitions that we connected with Fabiano, and how we were able to meet the family at the end of last year. At the International Coffee Week festival in Belo Horizonte in November last year, the Diniz family won both the national ‘Golden Cup’ competition, and CafeBras’ regional competition for Matas de Minas. It was a humbling experience to see the whole family’s joy at this recognition of their hard work on a national stage.

This particular lot is of the Catucai 2SL varietal, a natural crossing between Catuai and Icatu that is rather popular on Brazil. Unusually for Brazil, this lot is fully manually and selectively picked, making sure of even and ripe cherries. This is a naturally processed coffee, but is pre-fermented in water-filled tanks before drying. This gives a very slow and controlled start to fermentation, with temperature and microbial activity carefully monitored to ensure consistency. The sealed tanks also favour a lacto-bacterial fermentation as opposed to yeast, pushing the fermentation in this direction as it continues on the beds. This control, and the generation of lactic acid, leads to a rather unique and very clean expression of Brazil, a profile that has become the Diniz family’s signature. The high altitude, selective picking and careful fermentation lead to a profile more reminiscent of washed Colombia, with crisp notes of apple and rich brown sugar.

Educardo Flores

Educardo’s farm is located just outside the town of Villahermosa, in an area known to produce some of the best coffees in this remote part of Northern Tolima. Educardo is part of a new wave of producers here, looking to put this incredibly remote region on the specialty coffee map, and therefore create a more economically viable business producing coffee. Together with a small group of nearby producers, including our friend and co-founder of LaREB, Herbert Peñaloza, Educardo is part of Caficultores Diferenciado del Norte del Tolima (CDNT, The association of differentiated coffee growers of Northern Tolima). Together these producers work to improve both the quality and range of the coffees they produce, and through the LaREB collective, find roasters willing to pay good prices for quality. Educardo was one of the founding members of the project, and has since introduced his brother Yesid, who we have worked with several times. During our visit to the region around Casabianca and Villahermosa in November 2019 we were struck by the remote feeling here, with very few cars to be seen on the narrow roads that snake through the valleys and mountainsides of the stunning lush green landscape. We were also struck by the openness and hospitality of the people here, warmly welcoming us and each other into their homes.

This lot in particular is of Colombia and Castillo varietals, and is processed using a rather straightforward washed process. Ripe cherries are fermented in sealed bags for 2 days, de-pulped, washed and transferred to parabolic driers. The focus here, however, is on quality varietals grown carefully with positive influence from terroir. This lot has a crisp and fresh expression, with bright red berries and currants balanced by sweet black tea.

BREW GUIDE

V60

When brewing such clean and carefully crafted coffees as those in this month’s subscription, we push the extraction higher, in order to showcase their full potential.

This recipe works well for clean, expressive coffees.

DATA

15 grams of medium fine ground coffee
250 grams of water 30-50ppm 93°C
CAFEC Abaca or Light roast filters

METHOD

0:00

Add 60g of water

00:45

Pour 65g of water (125g)

1:30

Pour 65g of water (190g)

2:15

Pour 60g of water (250g)

Total brew time: 3:30 minutes

DISCOVERY

The modern coffee

This month’s lots are a great illustration of modern coffee. Flavour profiles are slowly becoming less attached to place, varietal or process. Skilled producers continue to find new ways to intentionally create flavour profiles that defy the traditional wisdom of the coffee industry. Until very recently, it wasn’t possible to find high quality single producer lots in Northern Tolima, or to find a crisp, fresh and acidic naturally processed coffee grown in Brazil. This month’s coffees showcase the incredible pace of progress within the industry, and we’re excited to be along for the ride.