English
Čeština
PRODUCER
Rancho Grande Farm dates back to 1933 when Mr. Aneite Reis inherited five hectares of land on which he began his coffee production. Almost ninety years later, the Reis family still runs the farm, Carlos with his son Flávio, called Fafa, the grandson and great-grandson of Aneite Reis.
The Rancho Grande farm aims to produce coffee in biodiversity and protect the environment around it as much as possible. Therefore, besides coffee trees on the farm, they also have cows for meat and milk. The Fazenda („a farm“ in Portuguese) also has several social projects, including accommodation for its employees on the farm in houses with subsidized electricity and food.
PROCESSING
After harvest, the coffee is sorted by grain density, determining the degree of ripeness. Ripe cherries (boia) and overripe cherries (boian) are placed in static boxes. These are one-meter-deep boxes with a capacity of 15 thousand liters of cherries. It’s about 25-30 bags of green coffee.
The boxes have a ventilation grille at the bottom, allowing air to circulate from the bottom up, making the coffee dry evenly. Coffee stays there for 12 days. Cold air blows into it for the first three days. For the next nine days, the air is at a temperature of 32 degrees until the humidity reaches 11%.
Subsequently, the coffee rests for another 26 days to stabilize all the processes inside the beans. Then the coffee is peeled in a dry mill. This method enables the processing of coffees with fuller, fruity, and pure taste profiles.
VARIETY
Topazio is a cross between Mundo Novo and Yellow Catuai, first selected at IAC in the 1960’s and later intensified by the state research organization EPAMIG in Minas Gerais. The trees have a low, relatively compact stature but are not resistant to diseases. Cherries ripen to deep yellow, inspiring its name indicative of the yellow gemstone. Topazio is leafy with a high capacity for production and mostly even cherry maturation, making it an efficient varietal to plant for mechanized harvesting and well suited for larger estates requiring uniform plantings to make the most of labor and management. The Topazio variety is especially well suited to the climate of Minas Gerais and does well at high densities and as part of irrigated plantation.
