Brazil - Full Bloom

Back in the early 1900s an Italian family from Bari landed in Brazil and started growing coffee around Campinas. Generations later the Pascoals circled back to it, naming their farm Daterra—basically “from the earth.” Luis Pascoal got pointed toward the Cerrado Mineiro by Ernesto Illy, and they bought some pretty worn-out land near Patrocínio. The soil itself is a bright red/orange color “terra roxa” or “red land”. It took years of work to rebuild the soil and bring native plants and water back, and they still leave about half the place as natural reserve so they’re not just taking from it.
Full Bloom comes from that farm and is a straight natural coffee. At the end of the harvest the cherries are packed with this honey-like juice, and because the Cerrado gets so dry they can start drying right on the tree before they’re even picked. After that they finish drying on patios and in machines. It’s mostly varieties like Red Bourbon and Catigua grown up around 1,150 meters, and the selective mechanical picking keeps things pretty clean.

In the cup it comes across as juicy and full, with stone fruit, blueberry, and plum, then a clean caramel finish that hangs around. It’s the kind of Brazilian natural that feels more like ripe fruit than the usual chocolate-nut profile—simple, straightforward sweetness from letting the cherries concentrate on the branch in that dry season.