Santo André

This is the third year we have purchased coffee from Santo Andre, a large 1500 hectare farm located in the Cerrado Mineiro region of Brazil. The land that became Fazenda Santo Andre was originally purchased by Lincoln Ferreira in 1938, but was mainly used for other agriculture until the first coffee was planted in 1986. This very flat land lies at a very high altitude for the region, with high rainfall, all of which is conducive to efficient and high quality coffee production. The Ferreira family also take sustainability seriously; the farm is located on a conservation area in the Paranaiba River basin, which limits the amount of fertilisers and pesticides the farm can use. Thera are also 13 natural springs across the farm, which have been left untouched by agricultural activity. In fact of the 1500 hectares of farm area, only 222 are intensely planted with coffee. The farm today is managed by Lincoln Ferreira’s two sons, Lincoln Jr. and André, who have really taken the farm to the next level in terms of quality, with stringent QC measures put in place. Measurements of soil moisture content, daily yield and more are taken every day throughout harvest, and kept on a log. Each lot of coffee is then kept separate depending on day’s picking, farm plot and varietal, and kept linked to this log. This, along with multiple cuppings, allows tight control of the quality leaving the farm. The level of dedication has paid off, in 2018 a lot of Catigua from the farm placed highly in the Brazil Naturals Cup of Excellence, scoring 87 points. This lot of naturally-processed Mundo Novo varietal is displaying a heavy sweet brown sugar and hazelnut character, with a crisp apple acidity sitting just in the background.