Name: Sítio Pico do Boné
Region: Araponga, Matas de Minas, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Producers: Cristiene, Kátia, Doña Aparecida, & family
Process: Natural
Variety: Catigua MG 2
Altitude: 1,250 MASL
Tasting Notes: pomelo, caramel, cherry
Use a 1:14 ratio with 195˚F water
More:
This coffee is a beautiful example of our approach to sourcing as it embodies, Quality, Relationship and Impact. In the fall of 2023, co-owner and green coffee buyer, Areli Barrera Grodski, went on a trip with BD Imports to visit producers in Matas de Minas who are specifically participating in the Black Brazilian Producers Program. We met many skilled and knowledgeable producers who as a family steward their farms with so much care and dedication using sustainable and organic practices. One of the farms we visited was Sítio Pico do Boné. This farm is gorgeous, lush, and truly an oasis. We were greeted with cut fruit from their lands (passion fruit, bananas, huge avocados, loquats and citruses galore) and were given a tour of their 15 hectare farm.
Coffee runs in the Aparecida family's blood, four generations deep, but Cristiene's father, Abraão da Silva and her mother, Aparecida Martins were the first generation to move from sharecropping to land ownership. “It took many years of sacrifice to become landowners, but my family was determined.” Says Cristiene. Abraão da Sliva loaded his ox cart and traveled for 2 hours round trip to the family’s coffee farm, able to carry about 100 plants per trip. His wife Doña Aparecida recalls he would make up to 5 trips in one day to plant the coffee farm. He and his family planted 12,000 coffee trees in this way. Currently they are up to 40,000 trees on the farm. You can feel the passion, love, sweat, blood and tears that are imbued on their farm. The coffee plants thrive from it.
Abraão da Silva passed away in 2016 but his legacy lives on with his daughters, Kátia and Cristiene. They decided to pursue specialty coffee and are in pursuit of exporting their coffee for higher premiums. This coffee is a result of their skills, knowledge and hard work.
Flavor-wise, you can expect a juicy cup with tropical flavors of pomelo, cherry and a caramel sweetness.
The Process:The coffee was first harvested and the fruit was washed in a container full of water, where they separated the floaters and the sinkers. They transferred the cherries to a 200-liter drum and closed the lid tight to prevent contamination.
