This microlot comes from producer Natanael Lopes, a member of the Coopfam cooperative and participant in one of its quality improvement projects. For years, Coopfam has been at the forefront of specialty coffee production in Brazil, leading quality improvement initiatives and post-harvest training programmes that help its members consistently produce exceptional coffees.

Every year Coopfam organize a quality competition for their members and reward and highlight the best scoring coffees. We are proud to participate and be able to purchase lots from this competition. This year they also managed to achieve the Golden Cup award, FairTrade’s quality competition in Brazil. 

Natanael Lopes has been a member of Coopfam cooperative since 2014 and since he joined, he has been consistently improving the quality of his farm. Natanael produces coffee in organic way, which can yield exceptional results, but this approach also requires more labour and attention.

Natanael has a couple of very small coffee growing plots, this one is called Pedra Redonda, which is also a famous large rock formation in the Araponga region, right above the farm.

Natanael’s farm sits on the lower slopes of this mountain, which made him name the farm after the famous feature. The top of the mountain is about 1570 masl and Nathanael’s farm sits at around 1360 masl which is relatively  high altitude for Brazilian production and guarantees slow maturation, which is critical for high quality. 

Process 

The cherries are hand-picked on the farm and then been placed on a patio to rest a while in order to remove all imperfections. After sorting, the coffee is spread out on drying patios and dried faster at first and then layered up to promote slower and uniform drying.

Once the coffees reach 12% moisture, they are moved to Coopfam’s dry mill in Poco Fundo where they are stored and the parchment skin is removed, preparing them for export.

• Farm: Pedra Redonda 
• Location: Matas de Minas
• Process: Natural
• Varietal: Catuai Vermelho
• Altitude:  1360masl
• Tasting: Milk Chocolate, Roasted Hazelnuts & Apricot
• Aroma: Candied Nuts
• Acidity: Medium/Low
• Body: Medium/Full