Caffe Society Speciality Coffee: Brazilian Chapadão de Ferro
Second up in our latest round of speciality spotlights is a decidedly sticky Brazilian grown coffee from the Chapadão de Ferro estate that makes the most wonderful espresso. There’s something special about this and when you read on to find out what makes this unique, you’ll immediately understand why we were so excited to get a shipment to ourselves.
It’s extremely sweet, but in a deep and dark way.
Chapadão de Ferro
15 kilometres due east of Patrocinio, Minas Gerais, you’ll find a collection of estates, farms and plantations that are all, in their own way, a little unique. Here, the soil is a little bit different: Packed full of nutrients and rich in rare minerals, the conditions here for farming are something special and unlike anywhere else in Brazil and that’s because the fields all lie in the crater of a dormant volcano!
It is here where Ruvaldo Delarisse runs his estate, Chapadão de Ferro. Chapadão de Ferro translates into English as ‘The Iron Plateau’, a nice little nod to the favourable soil in which he grows an assortment of high quality arabica coffee. Delarisse moved to the outskirts of Patrocino in the 1980s when his grandparents relocated the family’s prominent coffee growing business from the southern state of Parana up north to Minas Gerais.
It is here, on the outskirts of Patrocino, where Delarisse has carved out his own identity as one of Brazil’s finest cultivators of specialty coffee. Lots from his estate have achieved Cup of Excellence status in the past two years (8th in 2015 and 17th in 2014), such is the quality of his work.
The technical bits…
Once ripe, the coffee cherries are picked and then manually sorted by hand to ensure that only the best beans are processed. From here they are washed and left to dry in the baking Brazilian sun on vast, specially constructed patios. Once the moisture content has dipped to the perfect level, the beans are manually sorted for a second time.
This particular lot is comprised solely of 16-18 screen sized beans.
- Origin: Patrocinio, Minas Gerais, Brazil
- Farm: Chapadao de Ferro
- Altitude: 1,260m
- Varietal: Acaia, Bourbon, Catuai and Mundo Novo
- Process: Natural
In the cup
We’ve said that this coffee reminds us of ‘sweet puddings on a Sunday afternoon’ and once you’ve tried this as an espresso you’ll know exactly what we mean! This Chapadão de Ferro arabica is characterised by a marzipan and deep, sweet molasses in the profile, all backed up with a bitter cocoa finish.
Tasting profile
- Body: 9
- Sweetness: 9
- Acidity: 5
- Flavour: 8
- Aftertaste: 8
- Aromatics: 8.5
- Clean Cup: 8
- Total: 55.5
- Correction: +30
- Overall Score: 85.5
Brewing recommendations
Thanks to its inherent dark sweetness and cocoa finish, we recommend that you prepare this either as a luxury single-origin espresso or as the base for your milk-based specialities.
When using an espresso machine don’t be afraid to ‘cook’ it for a little bit longer than you normally would; that bitter cocoa note becomes slightly more prominent and really cuts through the sweetness of the milk.
This deliciously sweet Brazilian Chapadão de Ferro is available to order via our webstore.
All of our other speciality coffees can be found here.