Brazil – Cafeina

Cocatrel Cooperative was founded in 1961 in Tres Pontas and has now grown into the second‍-‍largest cooperative in Brazil. The cooperative has more than 6,000 members and 11 different collecting locations throughout the region. All coffee is electronically marked and recorded on delivery using a unique QR code that allows full traceability of all coffees so growers know exactly where their coffee is. More than 50% of the cooperative members grow coffee on plots of less than 10 hectares. Our coffee comes from a branch of the cooperative called Cocatrel Direct Trade, which works to obtain the best coffees from the entire cooperative. Caixa De Fruta, which means “Box of Fruit”, is a blend of coffees mainly from one specific area called Carmo De Cachoeira. The coffee is selected for its profile of red fruit and creamy milk chocolate.

All coffees that are part of Caixa are dried in static boxes. These are 1 m deep boxes with a volume of 15,000 liters, which corresponds to 25-30 bags of green coffee. The boxes have a ventilation grille at the bottom, which allows air to circulate from the bottom up through the drying coffee. Two thermometers at different depths are introduced to ensure a stable temperature, always below 40 ° C. They are called static because the coffee still stays in the boxes and does not rotate during drying. After drying, the coffee is left to rest for about 1-2 weeks before it is peeled in the dry mill. This method brings a more fruity and distinctive profile to the cup than the one we have associated with Brazilian coffee.