Organic Brazilian Fazenda Jacaranda One Roast
Organic Brazilian Fazenda Jacaranda
It has been 4 years since we ran Fazenda Jacaranda as a One Roast Coffee. It’s also twenty years since we first bought Fazenda Jacaranda, through Bourbon Mill and Mercanta.
Brazilian Fazenda Jacaranda Lot 27 is an example of “The Good Times!”. This is the best coffee that I have ever tasted from Cassio, in fact when I tasted the pre-ship sample I questioned why this wasn’t going into Cup of Excellence. This micro lot is a thing of sensory beauty and I am proud to have it in our roastery.
These days Cassio is more than a farmer who sends us coffee. Cassio has spent time with us here in the UK (as a friend) and has also taken me to some of the best organic coffee farms in Brazil, including his own.
Top Trumps
Farm: Fazenda Jacaranda
Owners: Cassio Franco Moreira, agronomist, PhD, and his mother Telma Teixeira Franco
Region; Minas Gerais
Process: Natural
Size 150 Hectares
Altitude: 1.100 – 1.250mts
Varieties: Bourbon, Catuai, Mundo Novo, Icatu, Catucai
This coffee is grown organically and can also be bought as non-organic if you can’t wait till Wednesday for the next Organic Roasting Day.
Scale: Anual production of around 400 bags of 60kg
Cup potential:🥣
Aromatics: Ripe and fruity | Body: Creamy on cooling| Acidity: Balanced, stonefruity and low|
On opening, we have so much going in in the cup. A striking cocoa emerges alongside lively delicate fruit. White and purple fruit sugars, subtle, sweet, and deep take over the front palate with dark chocolate and cocoa slipping into the background. On cooling apicot-like fruit sugars dominate with soft candied citrus and a ridiculous sweetness punctuated with a cocoa finish.
In most filter brewing methods, with good water and fresh burrs 60g of coffee per litre is fantastic.
Espresso
In a 9oz milk-based drink, Jacaranda holds its own. Dark chocolate, a touch of grain and sugarcane sweetness.
In a 6oz milk-based drink, there is good cocoa and some wild ripe fruit.
Espresso: For a “One Roast”, you might expect all things sour, but the low acidity makes this balance beautifully. Think Rowntree fruit gums and lime sugars.
Brew recipe:
18g coffee into 34-36g of espresso 28-33 for milk-based drinks and 18g into 45-50g of espresso liquid in 30-40 seconds.
94.5-95.5C
Farm Stuff
The Franco family has produced coffee in these lands since 1860, originally at the Serra Negra Farm. Carlos Fernandes Franco inherited part of Serra Negra farm in 1969 and started the Jacarandá coffee farm. He died in 2003 and was always passionate about nature and a true ecologist (also engineer who made huge bridges in the Amazon). He was the pioneer in organic coffee production in Brazil and the farm is organic since 1992. His grandson Cassio Franco Moreira has started agronomy college in 1995 already having a strong organic coffee influence.
Today the farm is divided within Carlos Franco´s widow, Francisca Franco, and her sons/daughters. All of the areas are still organically managed but some coffee plots have been abandoned due to family and farm restructuring. Today 2 daughters, 1 son, and grandson of Carlos run several parts of Jacarandá with around 30ha of organic coffee being managed and a plan to renew more 15ha in the next 5 years. When we visited Jacaranda, the level of re-planting and reinvestment was staggering. Cassio is an optimist and a long term thinker. I really hope that we will be able to share with you a micro-lot from Jacaranda next season, as we have done with the award-winning Sitio Grota Sao Pedro this season. Quietly, I also hope that Jacaranda does so well it wins Cup of Excellence one day, as a reward and recognition for the long term dedication.
ORGANIC Brazilian Fazenda Jacaranda One Roast