BRAZIL - RANCHO GRANDE | Natural

Coffee production began at the Rancho Grande Farm in 1933, when Mr. Aneite Reis inherited 5 hectares of crops to start production from. Today, the farm is run by José Carlos Reis and his son Flávio (Fafa) Reis, both son and grandson of Mr. Aneite. The farm for diversification also has many cows for dairy and meat production. The mission of the farm is to responsibly produce coffee of the highest possible quality without neglecting the importance of protecting the environment and the caring for the well-being of its employees. Several employees live on the farm in houses provided with subsidised electricity and food. On the farm they are open to change and trying new techniques and they have invested in several static drying boxes to help improve the quality & profile of the coffee they could produce. They have been working hard on improving the quality of their coffees for the specialty market and working on all aspects of the production of these lots from the growing, picking and post harvest treatment.

Manga Larga Series

In the 2019 harvest in collaboration with Fafa and the his team at Rancho Grande, Cocatrel Direct and ourselves at Falcon we began some experimental processing methods to start to test the boundaries of what was possible for the coffees from this farm. Initially Cocatrel Direct had had some very good results from using the new static boxes to help slow fermentation and drying down to create profiles not commonly associated with these style of coffees. Building of their initial work and adding another layer of pre anaerobic fermentation before drying in the static boxes we have managed to produce some coffees that we feel live up to the process in cup quality. This range of coffees is named after a breed of horse 'Manga Larga' known form this region for its high quality and special attributes that are part of the history and story at Rancho Grande.

Once the coffee has been mechanically harvested it is then separated using density which separates the levels of ripeness. The boia ripe cherry) and boian (slightly over ripe) are then chosen to be put into the static drying boxes or dried on the patios. This Topazio lot was taken to the patios where it was stacked thicker than usual to slow the drying to 18 days and extend fermentation. After this the coffee is then left to rest for 26 days and stabilise losing a little more moisture to below 11% before it is then milled. This method has allowed the production of more fruity and prominent profiles from the usual profile we associate with Brazil natural coffee.