Overview
We always look forward to the return of coffees from Valdir and Daniela, which we’ve been purchasing now for five consecutive seasons via our longest green buying partnership with Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF) in Brazil. We’ve been working to dig a bit deeper with our purchasing model here and begin to focus on building relationships with single producers. We’ve fallen in love with the saturated grape jam and chocolate heavy flavor profile we find in this Red Catuai variety, and we’re excited to share it once again!
Valdir José Ferreira and his wife, Daniela, own a small farm named Sitio Joaninha, located in the Boa Vista Valley of the Caconde region. In fact, coffee from Sitio Joaninha has been included in a regional blend we offered a few years ago named Boa Vista! After many years of simply driving in from São Paulo to visit for family holidays, Valdir decided to move out to Caconde and take over his grandparents’ property.
Their farm has changed quite a bit throughout its time in the Ferreira family. Valdir recalls stories from when his mother was a child, playing in the coffee fields while her parents were working. In those days, the fields were filled with wildlife and insects, and his mother would play with the ladybirds. Valdir’s grandfather used to praise ladybirds, saying they were good for the coffee plants because they would eat harmful insects. As volume and convenience was valued more and more in the traditional coffee market, harmful agrochemicals were introduced in the area to fertilize plants and control pests. Over time, ladybirds (along with bees, butterflies, birds, and nearly all wildlife) disappeared from the farm.
In 2009, FAF approached farmers in the Boa Vista Valley about the idea of working together to grow better quality coffee and care for the environment. Valdir was all in and became an early partner in FAF’s Bobolink project, which was designed to improve coffee quality while simultaneously protecting the water, wildlife, and trees, ensuring a sustainable planet for future generations. Valdir’s mother loved the idea as well, and this is when she initially proposed renaming the farm to Sitio Joaninha - meaning ladybird in Portuguese. Each year since then, the coffee from Sitio Joaninha has significantly improved. Valdir immediately stopped using herbicides on his coffee and started cleaning the brush between the plants manually. This creates a natural compost bed, encouraging friendly insects and other organisms to return to the fields. The ladybirds are now back, and Valdir & Daniela’s children get to experience the joy of playing in coffee fields full of life.
Valdir & Daniela have been experimenting with different fermentation and drying techniques to push their coffee into a more dense, concentrated flavor profile. We think the results show in the cup, as the standard Brazilian coffee characteristics are noticeably intensified. We find that this coffee has a particularly full body that highlights darker sugars and berries. We’re tasting: red grape, cherry, raisin, date, caramel, brown sugar, hazelnut, praline, nutella, peanut butter.
Relationship
Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (Environmental Fortress Farm) is the premier coffee farm in Brazil and a leader amongst the international coffee community. This is our oldest producer relationship, dating back to our humble beginnings in the early 2000s, when we first met Marcos Croce, Silvia Barretto, and the family. With quality control spearheaded by their son and our dear friend, Felipe Croce, the attention to detail in terms of lot selection and separation is paralleled by few companies the world over. We have sourced different lots from their farm and many of the connected farms working under the FAF banner over the years. As their knowledge and skills of organic farming and proper processing techniques continues to grow, so does the network of other families that are working with FAF and adopting the same methods. Their goal is beautifully simple - promote total coffee quality and sustainability and find other farmers who share the same desire. For the FAF family, this concept of total quality is “found at the intersection of sensorial quality with holistic sustainable practices that ensures quality of life for all involved. Coffee quality comes first, and it is what gets you in the door. This must be followed up with more farms switching to organic or more sustainable alternatives. Planting new varieties, improving processing, and producing better tasting coffee. Building a new generation with a bright future.”
FAF’s vision of how to properly treat our planet and our environment is truly inspiring. They’re consistently raising the bar for the model of sustainability in coffee production, not only for Brazil but for the entire world. More from one of their websites (bobolinkcoffee.com): With altitudes ranging from 1000-1400 meters, this coffee is all family farmed. Instead of treating coffee as a homogenous product, we believe in focusing on smaller lots and harvesting unique flavors. We are a network of farmers working together and exchanging information in order to innovate, evolve, and produce some of the most special coffees in the world. Our philosophy is to achieve the highest quality out of each bean, while taking into account social and environmental responsibility. Our agricultural methods aim to produce in harmony with nature. This means both utilizing nature to create a healthy balance of shade and rich soil, respecting the habitats of animals and keeping springs and waterways clean.
Processing
FAF works with specific leaders in different growing regions who serve as point people to assist with organization of farmers and coordination of spreading information. In the particular case of the Caconde, we have João Hamilton Dos Santos. João began working with the FAF family in 2006, and they very quickly formed long-lasting friendships. It’s clear that João is a natural leader; throughout the years he took it upon himself to start assisting his neighbors in perfecting their post harvest processing techniques. Together, with the help of João and the FAF team, they shifted towards an entirely new production model. They began to treat coffee as a quality beverage and not just a grain to be auctioned off to a local buyer. The families throughout this area have used this period to improve the health of their coffee plantations, maximizing the potential of the incredible terroir of the region. United by the passion of producing high quality coffee and preserving the natural habitat which they have inherited, Valdir, Daniela, and Sitio Joaninha are a part of what FAF is calling the 100 Year Project - to bring back the abundance of clean water, forests, and organically grown produce for those who inhabit today and for the following generations to come.
FAF has recently invested in building a centralized dry mill and drying station in the Caconde region that services many farms in the area, including Sitio Joaninha. João Hamilton oversees all of the operations here - proper drying of coffees on African-style raised beds, storage, and milling. The majority of coffee in this region is naturally processed, so the seeds will remain stabilized within the dried fruit until it is time to export.
Valdir & Daniela handle fermentation and drying on their farm, Sitio Joaninha, and simply deliver dried coffee to João at the centralized mill. Total drying times for their natural processed coffee is around 15 - 20 days.
Brewing
If your coffee tastes overly nutty, slightly sour, and the mouthfeel is thin or watery - like boiled peanuts - try grinding finer.
If your coffee tastes more like intense dark chocolate (versus the ideal sweeter, milk chocolate flavors) and the mouthfeel is cloying and gritty - like cocoa powder - try grinding coarser.
