Organic Brazilian Maria Branca Espresso
Organic Brazilian Maria Branca Estate
Please note, organic coffees are roasted on Wednesday.
Jose and Jacqueline visited us in the Autumn of 2022. I am not sure where the time has gone as it feels more recent. It is a privilege to have Organic coffee from Maria Branca in the roastery. We have just topped up, to see us through until next season, which leaves us in a position to offer this as a single farm espresso.
Jose and Jacqueline work with our mutual friend Cassio Franco Moriera, who is also a passionate organic advocate and our supplier. He has consulted with José and Jacqueline since the beginning of the journey, turning Maria Branca into an organic coffee farm.
As intended by Jose and Jacqueline, this will be roasted as organic, to reflect on their hard work and investment.
Top Trumps
Farm: Maria Branca
Owners: José and Jacqueline Lopes de Faria
Region: Esperito de Santo de Pinhal
Farm size 35 Hectares/ 15 Hectares planted with coffee.
Varietals: Catucaí, Amarelo (main), Icatu and Mundo Novo
Certification (Organic)
Process: Natural
Roast: Espresso.
Espresso Potential: ☕️1
|Aromatics: Sweet, Dark Chocolate| Body: Silky| Acidity Low acidity, citric finish.|
In espresso:
Brew Temp: 93-94C
Milk-based drinks: 1:2 17g of coffee into-34g (ish) of espresso in 25+seconds.
Espresso 17g of coffee into 45-50g of espresso liquid 25-30 seconds works well.
9oz Milk-based drink. Milk chocolate, lactic caramel.
6oz Milk-based drink. Silky, creamy dark chocolate.
Espresso: White fruit sugars up front, fused with dark chocolate and a long cocoa and citrusy finish.
Farm Stuff
Maria Branca is a labour of love in more than the usual way. Owned and run by a highly accomplished medical couple (we are talking about a professor (Jose) and his wife (Jacqueline) is a famous optometrist) who both thought it would be interesting to have a coffee farm. When we visited in the summer of 2019, I don’t think I have ever seen a farm run like it. Jose is very accepting of what nature does and replants and regrows things in a different way that can work. I don’t negatively mean this at all, but when you want to run a farm and you will still get by if the farm doesn’t make a (big) profit there is a different outlook from many of our other producers, whose everything is solely dependent on coffee income. Organic is at the heart of what they do and believe in.
On the farm several other organic crops are grown, everything is organic. The bananas were some of the best I have ever tasted, and that’s before we talk about the coffee.
Maria Branca is a truly idyllic place.
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