Brazil Yellow Honey Carlos Henrique

This coffee comes from Santa Rita de Cássia Farm, owned and operated by Carlos Henrique, and daughter Dani Alkmin. Don Carlos purchased the farm back in 1982, and has expanded slowly through the years to the current 78 hectares. Their farm is situated on the sloping hills of the Serra da Mantiqueira in Carmo de Minas, and spans a pretty steep incline of 900 to 1400 meters above sea level. Due in part to the steep terrain, but also by choice, the family harvest their coffee cherries manually by hand, instead of using harvesting machinery. Why do I mention this? Because manual harvesting allows the picker to only select ripe cherries, whereas machinery of today is indiscriminate. Someday that may change, but for now it is the hand picking that allows for a more uniform selection, something that impacts the cup. In addition to the standard dry process and pulp natural coffees, they also produce a small amount of honey process, which is what this lot is. Honey processing is actually very similar to pulp natural in that the outer cherry is removed, but the sticky mucilage is left intact. With honeys, a thicker layer of fruit is left intact with the seed during the drying phase, which can affect the cup in different ways, like enhance body, and sweetness. We found this lot to be on the refined side for Brazil and for honey, lightly fruited, and carrying a very nice level of sweetness. It also produces a bit of chaff during roasting, so be sure to vacuum your roaster between batches.