In 2012 we met up with our partner producers from Brazil at the Nordic Roasters Forum in Stockholm, Sweden. Joao Hamilton, from Sítio Canaã and Felipe Croce from Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza were invited to talk about how they approach working directly with roasters.

Its our second year working with Joao Hamilton and his brother Ivan Dos Santos along with their partner producers at Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza "FAF". The FAF is a family run collective of a few farming families run by Marcos Croce and his two sons Daniel and Felipe.

A few years back they started doing something radically different from most other Brazilian farmers in that they focused on micro lots and in particular monitoring and documenting the entire process from picking through drying. By doing this, they were able, though extensive cupping of their lots, to taste the difference between the variables of production variances.

In addition, what was revolutionary as far as we are concerned, is that they were able to keep their naturally processed coffee in a stable environment during drying. This allowed them to push the length of drying past 30 days, which is almost twice the amount of time that other producers dry their coffee in. By monitoring and adjusting the heat of the drying tables, with sunshades/wind tunnels, they can open the coffee up or close it down, all without any of the fermenting normally associated with this type of drying process.

The coffee is very clean and of the highest quality exported from Brazil. We are very happy to be working with such a great group of producers. At the Nordic Roasters Forum, this year, we spent a few days with both Felipe and Joao in Sweden and they spoke about their direct trade model.

We look forward to our farm visit in August.

Thank you to Camilla Ribas for the translation help!!