The Producers
Sebastiao Eloi Miranda lives at his small farm Sitio Gamelao with wife Tereza. His parents moved from Sao Paulo to Minas Gerais when he was only 2 and since then, coffee has been part of his family routine. He started working as picker for other farms and at the age of 25, Mr. Miranda bought his first piece of land and planted 1 hectare of Coffee.
“Things were quite different few years ago. We used to mix all of our microlots because buyers didn’tcare about higher quality. Quantity was the most important thing”, says Sebastiao. Nowadays, Mr Miranda produces 500 bags of Specialty Coffee annually, mainly Yellow Catuai. Sun dried on a cemented patio and a few bags on raised beds. “We are happy to hear that consumers all over the world are enjoying our coffee. Better prices give us motivation to focus on quality”.
The Art of Production
Cherries are carefully handpicked and then oated in a tank of water to separate by density. The densest, ripest cherries sink to the bottom of the tank and the oaters are removed. The remaining high quality cherries are then dried on the patio in the sun with skin and pulp intact until the optimum moisture content has been reached. The cherries must be carefully maintained and turned to prevent over- fermentation or mold developing. Once the dried coffee cherries have been rested for a month, they are hulled, graded by bean size and bagged in GrainPro liners to preserve freshness.
The Region
Machado is located in the south of the Minas Gerais region. The local area has some of the highest elevations of any coffee growing region in Brazil (up to 1,250masl). The cooler climate allows for a slow cherry development, mild but distinct acidity and nice healthy trees!