Here is one of our favourite Brazils of the last few years. Alongside Maranhao and Vargem, Patricia produces fantastic coffee that is incredibly sweet and easy to drink. In some seasons her coffee can be as fruity as summer pudding and in other years (like this one) it is more of a classic nutty, caramel, chocolatey affair.
We have really been enjoying this profile as a filter and espresso.
Farmer: Patricia Mendonca
Varieties: Obata, Catuai, and bourbon.
Location: Sao Sebastiao De Grama, Mogiana
Process: Natural
Farm size: 59 Hectares; 40 of which are grown as coffee.
Harvesting: Manual
Roast: One Roast
São Sebastião de Grama is famous for producing speciality coffee and is now recognised as a micro-region in its own right. Patricia and her husband, Luiz, bought Tres Barras in 2017 as a standard “coffee farm”. Patrícia made a big career shift and bought the farm to produce high-quality speciality coffees and live closer to nature. Their goal is to explore the exceptional flavours that their coffees can bloom, based on responsible and careful production.
For the record (you can laugh at me if you like! I have) it turns out that Tres Barras means 3 bars in Spanish. Barra in Portuguese means a geographic formation that occurs close to the water, like a small beach. I asked Patrícia about the farm name, and she said that her husband, Luiz, named it this way because his grandfather had a farm named Tres Barras when he was a boy. They sold the first “Tres Barras” many years ago, but when Luiz bought his piece of land, he named it honouring his childhood memory.
We were surprised by how extractable this coffee is in espresso.
94C. 17-18g into 34-35g of espresso liquid in 27-32 seconds.
From the biggest drink downwards:
9oz Milk-based drink: Nutty, caramel and sweet.
6oz Milk-based drink: Cocoa, dark chocolate and roasted almonds
Espresso 17-18g into 40-55g
Due to just how well this coffee brews in filter, we were expecting a different outcome. The sweetness is quite rounded and as close as we have come to finding that plummy acidity. Big dark chocolate and cocoa.
