FAZENDA RIO VERDE B34 - MINAS GERAIS BRAZIL

PROCESS - NATURAL
VARIETY - YELLOW BOURBON
MASL 1195 - 1282
CUP SCORE 86

TASTING NOTES, BLACKBERRY, BLUEBERRY, GUAVA, BLACK GRAPE

Ipanema Gourmet has been producing coffee since the 1870s and is one of the largest farms with which we work. Their approach to coffee is innovative and creative. Beginning in 2018, Ipanema began their ‘Premier Cru’ range: a selection of very small-batch, handcrafted lots from the highest altitudes of the Estate’s oldest farm, Rio Verde. This range of Premier Cru coffees is packed in cutting-edge nitrogen-flushed vacuum-packed 20kg cartons. The method of nitrogen flushing, common with roasted coffee, stabilises the product by removing all traces of oxygen. Taking such care with green coffee is practically unheard of, even in specialty. The method speaks to the exceptional quality of these lots, which push the boundaries of what specialty coffee in Brazil can offer.
Rio Verde is a large farm of 1,566 hectares. Much of the farm lies between 700 and 1,000 metres above sea level. However, just over 260 hectares of the farm rise above 1,000 metres. This part of the farm, which rides several peaks, is separated into 32 ‘glebes’ (plots), all of which have different altitudes and sun faces, soil composition and a single varietal each (A=Acacia; B=Yellow Bourbon; C=Yellow Catuai). It is from these ‘glebes’ (ranging from .65 to 20.13 hectares in size) that the Premier Cru range is carefully harvested.
The project began development in 2014, with 2018 marking the first harvest marketed under the Premier Cru name.
Every year a new collection will be released with a unique ‘brand’ name. 2019 brought the Aura Matina (Morning Aura) collection, 2020 named Anima Verde, and this year (2021) deemed the Aura Magna.
Every micro lot is categorised into one of the three edition groups, revealing the complexity of the taste and its rarity. Ipanema’s coffee specialist team scores the lots into Black, Gold and Blue Edition grades (similar to whiskey). The coffee’s final name reflects the year’s ‘brand’, the ‘glebe’ from which it was harvested, and the dominant cupping note identified by the quality control team.