Chapadão de Ferro

Like Ariovaldo Bonfim, who produced our first fresh crop Brazilian lot of this year, Milton Dantas moved from the southern region of Parana to Cerrado Mineiro with the aim of becoming a coffee producer. He acquired the land that became Fazenda Chapadão de Ferro in 1993, a 29 hectare plot not far from the city of Patrocinio. The farm sits on the cone of a dormant volcano, meaning high altitude and very fertile volcanic soil. This combination of factors means slowly developed and nourished cherries, which are harvested a month or two later than most of the rest of the area.

Over the intervening years, Milton and his family have dedicated themselves to building their business. Eighteen hectares are now planted with Mundo Novo trees, and the excellent level of control applied in the field ensure these yield to their maximum potential. The Dantas family have also started to experiment with and refine their post-harvest processing, creating differentiation in style between their lots. This particular lot is a heavy and sweet expression of Cerrado, with rich dark chocolate and roasted almond flavours, punctuated by a fresh mandarin acidity.

Cerrado Mineiro

The region of Cerrado Mineiro is part of the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. In 2013 the region became the first in Brazil to be granted a protected designation of origin certificate, similar to Champagne or Scotch whisky. To qualify for the title ‘Cerrado’, the coffees must be speciality grade (80+) and grown above 800 masl in the Cerrado Mineiro region. The 4500 producers of the Cerrado region produce 6 million bags of coffee a year, from 210,000 hectares of coffee growing lands. Most of the lands here are of quite low altitude compared to most of the coffee we buy here at La Cabra, and are more flat, rather than on mountainous terrain. The region has characteristic and distinct seasons, with a wet warm summer, and a dry winter, leading to more consistency in growing conditions between years. The dry climate during harvest means less issues with drying coffees, part of the reason so many high quality naturals are produced here.

About La Cabra

A focus on raw material

If we don’t feel that a coffee suits our style or what we like to present, we simply won’t buy it. Sometimes this leads to issues in green buying; we have to pay very close attention, to a level of green quality that will support this approach, and to how this will develop over the life of a coffee. We are required to focus heavily on the freshness of coffee, both green and roasted, to avoid introducing taints into our cups. We always use clean and fresh water, of an ideal mineral content to present the coffee in its best possible light. Once we have the correct roasting profile, water, and coffee age, the act of brewing is much more simple. A wide variance in brewing parameters can still produce delicious and transparent cups. It is also important to note that this is not always the most consistent approach. The coffee is laid completely bare, so any flaw with the raw material is clearly on show. We could often develop some coffees slightly more, to make them more approachable or easy to work with, but wavering from our philosophy like this would compromise our commitment to complete transparency in coffee.