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The coffee story
Our history goes back to 1901 when our family started growing coffee at Capim Branco Farm, near the town of Serra do Salitre in the Cerrado Mineiro region. However the brothers Ismael and Eduardo Andrade, who are the face of the company today, only got involved with coffee in the 1970s. At the time, they were living and working in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. They didn't work with coffee really. But it was something that was in their blood, so the decision to take over the family business was a simple one. And when they got involved they got really involved!
Ismael Andrade, the face of São Silvestre's coffee
Ismael was one of the member founders of the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA). He was always a big defender of the natural processing method. People didn't use to think naturals were specialty and Ismael disregarded that as nonsense. He was right. The BSCA has been exporting to the world the value of the Brazilian specialty movement since 1991.
São Silvestre, where this lot comes from, was bought later on, in the 2000s. The farms are only 50 km away from each other but the terroirs are quite different. São Silvestre is higher, with an average altitude of 1200m, 2 degrees Celsius cooler and a later harvest. The volcanic soils are perfect for growing Yellow Icatu, Yellow Catuaí and Red Catuai varietals, which thrive here and account for the majority of the farm’s yield. Mr Dito has been the farm's manager since day one. He is 60 years old today, but remains a very open-minded man and does a great job with quality control on the post-harvest level.
Mr Dito on the right, the oldest employee at São Silvestre
We are really excited to see how the quality of Brazilian coffees has been rising recently. A lot of roasters, when they visit us and we cup together, say our coffees taste like the African ones. The acidity is always upfront and shiny due to the fermentation protocols we developed. We are also seeing a lot of new developments on the ground that make us believe that there is a new wave coming and people have no idea.
Today, a lot of great micro-lots are still a matter of luck. A producer is lucky one year and the coffee is great. Next year, not so much. And he/she can't understand why. This is changing. At São Silvestre, we don't believe in luck. We believe in science. we follow scientific protocols for our post-harvest not only because we want to be precise but also because we need to repeat the processes successfully year after year. We are getting there. Today, we can say that the sky is the limit.
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: 88.25. Primary notes of Tropical fruit, Rummy, Red ripe fruit. Secondary notes of Blueberry, Strawberry, Cherry, Toffee. Phosphoric, sparkling and juicy acidity with a velvety body.
"Excellent balance- fruity, with a velvety body, neverending aftertaste and sparkling acidity." - 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 (3.6% below)
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