Henrique Cambraia - Fazenda Campo Alegre - Yellow Catucaí Natural

Fazenda Campo Alegre has produced coffees in the region of Santo Antônio do Amparo since 1896. The quality of the coffees produced has always been carefully selected by the Cambraia family and appreciated by lovers of the drink in different regions of the world, such as North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

Campo Alegre’s production is guided by sustainable agriculture, with the management of environmental resources and extreme concern with the well-being of the Campo Alegre team. The Rainforest Alliance, UTZ, Cafe Practices and 4C certifications, among others, reaffirm the commitment and responsibility to the good practices adopted. Henrique joined the farm in 1993, when his father passed away. At that time the production was run on 25 hectares of coffee and the coffee area has been gradually expanded to today’s 602 hectares.

In 1998 he joined BSCA – Brazil Specialty Coffee Association and started to get involved with the specialty movement. He has developed few but solid relationships in the market and most of them have lasted more than a decade. The quality work performed at Campo Alegre has been recognized over the years. The important achievements of 11th and 13th places in the CoE in the years 2000 and 2001, respectively, and the taste of the Harvest BSCA/SCAE/CSC in 2016 are part of the important path taken by the farm.

The National Winner award in Cup of Excellence – Brazil 2016 – Natural with the special Catiguá brightened Campo Alegre’s results for the year and is added to the other awards achieved by the farm in 2016, standing out with 4th place in the Rainforest Alliance and Minas Gerais quality contests. The same Catiguá took the same route in 2014, as it achieved similar results in those specialty coffee competitions.

Coffee processing system

Natural Catucaí, situated at about 1000 meters of elevation, is carefully selective hand-picked, slowly dried on the patios, and finalized under low temperature in a dryer machine in order to preserve entirely the cell walls of the beans intact. It surprises us every day with its “explosion of mysterious flavor”!The Natural lado a lado process is done strictly in this way: 1) selectively hand-picked mature cherries are sent straight to the patio – no water tank contact; 2) 1st drying stage: during the first 3 days, the cherries remain untouched in a thin layer (side by side) in order to have the free water taken quickly out, avoiding unwanted fermentations; 3) 2nd drying stage: the cherries are put in a thicker layer and they are raked carefully around 10 times a day for another 5-7 days; 4) the final drying stage is carried out in drying machines at a maximum temperature of 37ºC. At this stage, the water molecules are strongly bound to the cells of the beans. So, it is necessary to remove this water very slowly.

Concern about quality

Fazenda Campo Alegre is a member of Sancoffee, which has a very distinctive business model. It involves a relationship platform to connect our growers to specialty coffee buyers around the world. Through Sancoffee, relationships are developed and strengthened. Coffees are prepared and exported directly from the origin. All our activities are guided by the importance we place on quality, consistency and transparency. Sancoffee undertakes several projects in partnership with research institutes and universities toward continuous improvement in quality and consistency. The “Quality Mining and Learning Project” is always going around the coffee farms to: 1) look for the highest potential lots from among a wide range of varieties and coffee plantations; 2) motivate growers and their co-workers to keep the focus on specialty coffee; and, 3) teach them how to consistently produce high-quality coffees. These efforts have been worth it.