10th place: Nivaldo and Willer Arantes - Yellow Icatu Sector 4 Natural

We planted this Icatu many years ago at our farm, Chácara Nossa Senhora da Aparecida, located in São Gonçalo do Sapucaí town in the South of Minas Gerais. We liked it not only because the resulting drink is good, but because it is a plant that yields well under the correct conditions. At the time, the variety was being promoted by the IBC (Brazilian Coffee Institute) for its resistance and because the fruit tended to reach its maturation peak faster than others, saving time for producers and helping to reduce costs. We were one of the first producers in the region to grow it.

This coffee is an example of the general quality our farm has been producing this year. Quality has been great! It’s beautiful to look at a cupping sheet and see that your worst coffees are scoring 82, for example. The farm’s average at the moment is 85! We have some low-quality contracts to honour and - it’s kind of bonkers - we don’t really have the amounts.

Our location and altitude are big contributors to the coffee’s quality. We are on the top of a mountain chain, in a plateau in the region of São Gonçalo. We discovered our potential only 7 years ago, when we participated in our first competition. We got 3rd place, but with a twist. The 1st and 2nd places were for micro-lots of 10 or 15 bags. Our lot had 250 bags! This helped us realize we could produce high quality consistently with good volume.

Since then we have developed some relationships with roasters in Brazil and in Australia selling directly. We also have created a Coffee Club to discuss all things coffee with other enthusiasts. Coffee is a great way to meet new people and make friends! It carries a lot of recognition for the producer, unlike any other crop. Have you heard of specialty pinto beans? I haven’t...

Another interesting detail about us is that my father Nivaldo is a cartographer by trade. He drew all the maps of the farm we have at the moment. We decided to add one of them here for you to have a look:

The competition

*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: 86.25. Primary notes of Dried fruit, Stone fruit, Toffee. Secondary notes: Citrus fruit, Nutty. Lingering finish with citric acidity and a velvety body.

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)