Brooks Grocery Brazil | Dark Roast | Natural Process

Ripe and raisin cherries (cherries left to dry on the tree) were
mechanically harvested, sent to the washing station on the farm
by tractors and were cleaned and separated by density (ripe to
one side, raisin to the other). They were dried in the sun on cement
patios, and then drying was completed in mechanical driers, to
ensure a more even result. After drying, they rested in wooden
boxes for 30-plus days before being hulled and then sent to a
nearby warehouse.

Cerrado is the newest coffee region in Brazil. It was shaped by two
important events. In 1975, the “black frost” devastated plantations
in Parana — at the time, the largest coffee-producing region in
Brazil — while in western São Paulo, coffee plantations were
struggling against an intense nematodes infestation. These two
events brought Brazil’s coffee industry to its knees.

Farmers set out in search of new areas to develop and arrived in
Cerrado — an underdeveloped area with poor, acidic soil — just
as a government effort was underway to understand the science
of Cerrado’s soil and whether it might someday be a major food
producer. Simple, inexpensive solutions wound up being effective,
and coffee plants adapted well to Cerrado’s well-defined climate.
Its warm temperatures, intense sunlight and dry winters aligned
perfectly with the harvest, which demands dry weather. Today,
coffee is grown here in 55 towns and across 210,000 hectares.