ESPERANÇA TOPAZIO, BRASIL

We don't source many coffees from Brasil, but then again, the Souza family produces coffees that will make you rethink what Brasilian coffee is really all about.

For generations now, the Souzas have been doing things a bit differently in Brasil. Bruno Souza works the land in the same way as his father, picking coffee only when it is at its peak, processing cherries carefully in small batches, and ultimately striving for the best coffee he can produce – not just the most coffee he can produce. Recently, Bruno has been devoting his time and energy to learning how to produce some of the best naturals the area has to offer.

This processing style is deceptively tricky – while there is no de-pulping, no tank fermentation, and no cleaning of the fruit until the final stages of milling – there are so many steps in the drying process that can make or break an excellent coffee. One of the most crucial steps in producing an excellent natural is harvesting. Instead of doing the typical single mechanical harvesting pass through the trees, the Souzas work with a rare combination of manual harvesting and multiple passes of a finely-tuned, delicate harvester to ensure that what comes off the trees is at the peak of ripeness. When the cherries get to the mill, they are then put into large tanks where immature and damaged ‘floater’ cherries are skimmed off from the harvest. Drying these cherries slowly and evenly is crucial. To do this, a combination of concrete patios and raised beds are used. The cherries are dried between 2-3 weeks, with attention paid to rotation, temperature, airflow, and sunlight exposure.

This particular offering comes from a special harvest hailing from the section of the farm where Bruno grows his topázio variety coffee. This is a fairly popular variety that was developed in Brasil during the 1960s and 1970s – a stable crossing of red catuaí with Mundo Novo, and then crossed back again with catuaí. The yellow fruits from this variety are exceptionally sweet and jammy and Bruno has had great success with the quality of his harvests, especially when processed in a natural manner as described above. One of the highest-scoring lots of the season, this is the coffee that Bruno’s daughter, Brazilian Brewer’s Cup champion Julia Souza, was planning on taking to the world stage in Milan. While the complexities of world travel during Covid meant that she would defer her competition to the World Brewer’s Cup in 2022, she is still excited that her hand-selected coffee will be served at both Ritual and her own Academia do Café coffee bars.