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Shipping
During the transport from the origin to the warehouse and when stored at the warehouse, your coffee is fully insured by Algrano. In case anything happens, we will take care of the issue.
For the road transport to your roastery, you can choose 2 delivery options:
Doorstep delivery (DDP): we will take care of the road transport to your doorstep. We will compare prices and organise the pick-up details. Transport insurance and transport claims are fully covered by Algrano. You have nothing to worry about!
Warehouse pick-up (FCA): you will have to organise the transport yourself, and you would need to instruct your carrier accordingly. You will need to organise the insurance, and in case of transport damage, you will need to raise the claim to your carrier.
For buyers in the EU, Switzerland and the UK the coffee will be provided customs cleared. In case of an intra-community delivery, you will need to report the purchase according to your local VAT regulations.
For buyers in Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein, we can provide transport to your roastery, but we are not able to import. In this case you would need to register the import.
For buyers in the USA, we will provide customs clearance.
"I chose this coffee for the competition because it was fruity and floral. For me, it has notes of molasses, cane sugar, orange and orange blossom."
- Sitio Vargem Alegre, September, 2020
Floral, Citrus fruit, Red berries,
Black tea, Herbal, Rhubarb
Jack Robson (Seller)
Floral, Coconut, Toffee,
Citric, High sweetness, Lingering, Vibrant acidity
Quality comment
Algrano
The most interesting about this coffee was that it tasted just like a fine washed Africa, floral and tea-like, elegant and sweet with multi-layered citric acidity of medium intensity and lingering toffee-like aftertaste.
Jack Robson (Seller)
I chose this coffee for the competition because it was fruity and floral. For me, it has notes of molasses, cane sugar, orange and orange blossom.
Financing costs apply until the coffee is released.
The coffee story
Sítio Vargem Alegre is located in the town of Cristina in the Mantiqueira de Minas region, South of Minas Gerais. It is owned by my father Sebastião and my mother Hilda, but all the family is involved. My father might look serious, but he is a very open-minded and easy-going man who embraces our participation and welcomes our opinions. My brother Edu and I joined him in 2015, when I was 18 years old and Edu 16. At the time, prices were getting really low and my dad wanted to expand his commercial coffee production to tackle the price issue. My brother and I encouraged him to invest in quality instead.
The view from our farm
He had a point in wanting to stick to commercials. Specialty is a lot more work after all. But with our help, we managed to look after the farm the way it needed. Our farm is quite high with the highest part at 1450m and it can be quite steep. We can’t use mechanical harvesters here. The quality is very good though and it would be a shame not to value it. And when we started in specialty, we couldn’t stop. It was like a fever.
My father at the farm. We take visitors up the hills on our tractor. It's the easiest way to go and it's fun!
I began working at the local cooperative to learn about quality control. Today I am a Q grader and also have the SCA Sensory Skills diploma. I learned a lot about preparing coffee, sampling, QC and processing since 2015. All this knowledge applied to the field has had a great impact on my family. We expanded our farms, patios and improved our post-harvest greatly. Our general quality of living has improved.
Today we have four plots: Vargem Alegre, Tarumã, São Sebastião and Nossa Senhora das Candeias. We keep going higher. Our most recent project is a coffee plantation at 1690m, where no other farmer has dared to go to. It’s so cold our first experience was a disaster. The frost killed everything. BUt now we learned that the plants need to grow under the shade of trees there, protected and not exposed. People call me crazy, but I’m on to something…
The competition
The competition jury in Brazil: Jack (right), William (centre) and Francisco (left)
*This coffee was scrutinized by 4 certified Q-Graders in 2 countries for the competition process with rigorous sensorial and physical analysis. Differences in cupping scores and notes are due to the use of different roast machines and lab setups. As the selection of the lots and the rankings happened in Brazil, the jury's score was kept as the main quality evaluation on the lot information page. Read the information below for more detail.
Algrano's QC Q-Grader: Veronika Kečkéšová Location: Zurich, Switzerland Roaster: IKAWA Total roasting time: 6'50" to 7' First crack: Around 5¨45", 194 to 196 degrees Celsius DTR: 65" to 70" Quality comments: Score: 87.25. Primary notes: Floral, Citrus fruit, Red berries. Secondary notes of Black tea, Herbal, Rhubarb. Lingering, sweet and toffee-like aftertaste with citric-tartaric, multilayered acidity and tea-like elegant body.
"The most interesting thing about this coffee was that it tasted just like a fine washed African, floral and tea-like, elegant and sweet with multi-layered citric acidity of medium intensity and lingering toffee-like aftertaste." - Veronika
Jury’s QC Q-Grader: Jack Robson, Francisco Lentini Neto and William Batista Mariano Location: Varginha, Minas Gerais, Brazil Roaster: Speciatto, Carmomaq Total roasting time: 8-9 minutes Drying phase: 4-5 minutes Maillard phase: 3 minutes DTR: 50 to 70 seconds Other comments: Agtron 63-65 Screen size: 16/18 (2% below)
The process
This lot comes from a sector in our sítio called "Da Cana" (Sugarcane). It refers to the sugar cane growing nearby. This is not one of our higher sectors - the most elevated parts of the farm range from 1300m to 1450m and we will be picking cherries in November -, but it has mild temperatures and a good amount of exposure to the morning sun.
The harvest was manual and selective, done with care by my family. After picking and removing the unripes we washed the cherries and took them to dry on raised beds for 30 days. We spread the cherries in thin layers, but the temperature in my town Cristina is quite cool for Brazilian standards.
After drying the coffee is taken to storage inside the dry cherry. This ensures that the humidity levels of the cherries become homogenous.
