Brazil, Fazenda Dutra Jabota

Fazendas Dutra is a network of family-run farms owned and operated by Ednilson and Walter Dutra—brothers and great friends. Ednilson is the commercial manager; Walter handles day-to-day production and PR. They have been coffee producers all their lives—their father started the farm with 1 hectare, buying a second and third hectare from the farm's profits until he had grown his land to 500 total hectares. The different lots or parcels that comprise Fazendas Dutra represent the original names of the individual farms that Don Dutra absorbed into his property.

Don Dutra passed away in an accident on the farm when his sons were young, but Ednilson and Walter have continued operations of the Fazendas in his honour and in the family name. The brothers have been growing their operations year by year, and have won a number of national competitions.

This coffee comes to us from producer Ivan Junqueira Ribeiro, owner of Fazenda Cruzeiro, a farm in Brazil's Campo das Vertentes region. The farm, established in 1923, spans a total of 1,021 hectares of which 381 are planted in Red Catuai, Yellow Bourbon, Mundo Novo, Topázio, Arara, and Rubi. Cherries here are picked ripe using both mechanical and manual harvesting techniques.  After harvesting, cherries are moved to a cement patio for drying.