KNOCKOUT

FAZENDA CRUZEIRO

Variety:   Rubi 
Process:   Natural and silo dried
Country:   Brazil
Region:   Araxa, Minas Gerrais, Cerrado Mineiro
Altitude:   1000 masl
Producer:   Claudio Ottoni

The impressive practices include no water waste and mplementing agroecological means of reducing and (in many cases) completely eliminating the use of herbicides. Some of these methods include planting plant species nearby the coffee trees that will attract and trap bugs and insects before they are able to infect the cherries. 

The discarded coffee pulp produced during the de-pulping of coffee cherries is recycled as compost and applied to the coffee plants.  This serves to re-invigorate soil fertility and to help the coffee plant absorb more water and nutrients.

The biggest innovation that Cruzeiro has implemented with regards to quality is the use of silo dryers in the processing of their coffee.  These silos are commonly used for seeds and other grains and help control and manage the drying process.  Their use in drying coffee has produced excellent results in the cup due to the slower drying process under controlled temperature, which increases uniformity and prevents over-fermentation. 

Even more importantly, perhaps, the silo drying process doesn’t ‘kill’ the bean, meaning that the bean can be replanted after being dried.

FINCA SANTA TERESA

Variety:   Bourbon
Process:   Washed and dried on raised beds
Country:   Mexico
Region:   Cerrado Mineiro Sierra Madre de Chiapas
Altitude:   1200 - 1800 masl
Producer:   Jorge Esteve

Situated in the mountains of Sierra Madre de Chiapas, south of the Chiapas State, sits the El Triunfo biosphere reserve. Neatly nestled between the state's largest hydrological regions, the Pacific coast and the Grijalva-Usumacinta River basin, El Triunfo is home to step mountainous terrains and a plethora of different groups of plants and animals. As one of the most diverse evergreen cloud forests in Mexico, the reserve is covered with evergreen seasonal forests and montane and lower montane rainforests that contain hundreds of endemic plants. As well as an abundance of flora, the reserve is an important site for bird migration, as well as home to several threatened spices, including; spider monkeys, Toucans, armadillo's margays, jaguars and pumas.

Located within this beautiful landscape sits Jorge Esteve's farm, Finca Santa Teresa. With other 150 hectares of estate dedicated to conservation, Finca Santa Teresa can 'co-exist' as part of the reserve. For years, Jorge Esteve was able to sell his estates coffee via the commodity market. However, due to shortages in agricultural workers and increasing production costs, managing Esteve's 180 hectares of coffee was becoming unmanageable.

This was until 2019 when Jorge began working with our partners, helping to instead produce smaller lots of quality coffee. Since then Jorge has made several changes to his processing techniques, including; defining different plots according to variety and altitude, controlling fermentation time and temperature, removing defects and securely storing his parchment.

For this Bourbon lot, Jorge begins by Selectively hand-picking only the ripest cherries. Next, the cherries are delivered to his mill, where they are sorted again by colour; before being floated in cool clean water to remove any under-ripe beans.

Once sorted, the cleaned cherries are transported to Jorge's new raised beds to dry. Here, the beans will remain for around 30 days, until a moisture reading of >12% is recorded. Once complete, the dried cherry is bagged and transported by truck for 3 hours to the warehouse, where the coffee is milled and ready for export.