Brazil Serra Nova Coffee

Situated on the border of Sul De Minas and the Cerrado sits the mountainous region of ILicnea with farms rising from 1100 – 1320 masl before the land falls away into the expanse of the cerrado. The area is made up of 6 communities. This beautiful area is blessed with a micro climate that provides conditions for producing unique and intriguing coffees. The regions soil is known as cambisolo where the rock is still turning to soil, this places its own unique stress on the plants and the maturation on the cherry. Prior the growers here really struggled with the winds that ravaged the crops, through inquisition and help they have put in systems and planted to trees to help minimise the effect of the wind. The region is still relatively new in terms of knowledge about it as coffees were previously sold under the names of other regions until recently.

Now these farms are being recognised for the unique coffees they produce in relation to the region & Brazil. For Luis Carlos Oliveira it had always been an aspiration to have his own coffee farm which he worked and saved for and was finally able to buy a small plot of land. The farm he looks after on the weekends as during the week he still needs to work in his job of construction to help support his family. He is able to tend to the farm with his family during the year but then needs the help of two workers during the harvest as all the coffee is collected by hand. Once collected the coffee is then dried on a small patio that he has at the farm for between 7-10 days. After this the coffee is then stored before being milled by a mobile milling unit that Luis rents before he can deliver coffee to the Cooperative.