I am lucky enough to have been to Aliança Estate Coffee a few times. Rolling up to the biggest Rubber (plant) Tree that I have ever seen is a Triffid-like house plant that has grown bigger than the 100-year-old estate house.
Aliança is on a different scale from many of the other farms that we buy from in Brazil. The levels of care for coffee plants and people are still great, with much wildlife around. The plantation is enormous but well-tended.
What is special about this lot? It is a yellow bourbon, a coffee harder to produce and more delicate in the cup.
Brazil Aliança Estate Coffee
Farmer: Renato Ishikawa
Varieties: Yellow Bourbon
Altitude: 850-1100 Meters above sea level.
Location:São João da Boa Vista, Mogiana region, São Paulo state.
Process: Natural
Farm size: 240 Hectares; 220 of which are grown as coffee.
Harvesting: Manual and mechanical.
Renato bought Aliança in 1977. Fazenda Aliança has its own processing facilities to transform coffee cherries into export-quality beans. The farm-integrated coffee mill includes a wet line and large drying grounds, with sorting and processing equipment. Although very modern, the farm started as a coffee plantation before 1850; the well-preserved main house dates from 1882.
The farm is big enough to have a visiting dentist’s room and child care unit. Basic foodstuff packages are given to temporary workers, and a lot of care goes into welfare.
As always, our experiences with our coffees are what we have extracted with which toys and how! If you want to put this in a cafetiere or add milk to it, whatever…that is your freedom.
94C, Ground coffee: 17-18g into 34-36g of espresso liquid for milk-based drinks just worked! We were brewing 26-32 seconds.
9 oz milk-based drinks, this is reminiscent of Illy in the early 1990’s. Subtle, caramelised milk with a “nice” balance of sweetness and milk chocolate.
6oz milk-based drinks, the difference was subtle. There is a little more cocoa, but it’s not a night-and-day difference.
More is more, as almost always, in my personal opinion.
The body is really light, where it’s only just espresso, more like a short, strong filter. We brewed this shorter, and the acidity soured, so we went for a standard 17.5g of espresso into 45-50g of espresso liquid.
This made a really dark, chocolatey espresso that is/ was more balanced.
Let us know how you get on with this recipe and if you have tried it with a different recipe that flourished!
