With each iteration of Article, we aim to compose a coffee that has great balance, packed with classic coffee characteristics whilst retaining a sweet, clean finish.
For filter brewing we recommended using 70g of coffee per litre of water. For espresso brewing we recommend a dose of 18g pulled to 36g in 30 seconds. This coffee balances very well with milk.
Article 1 – Fazenda São Domingos, Brazil
Owned by Marco Antonio Guardabaxo, Fazenda São Domingos is located in the hills of Mococa (Mogiana), in the north of São Paulo State in Brazil, and was established in the 1960s. The terrain at altitudes between 810 to 1,100 metres allows the cultivation of different varieties of coffee (Yellow Catuai, Catucai, Obatã, Acaiá, Arara & Rubi) on the flat plains of the farm, with the cultivation of eucalyptus trees on the slopes.
Between the rows they sow a mixture of seeds for ground cover crops, including Buckwheat, Turnip Forage, Rattlepods, Millet, Brachiaria Ruziziensis and Congo Grass. The farm has 80 hectares of conservation and preservation land.
The farm has a complete wet and dry milling infrastructures, with modern technology, giving the farm the possibility to execute a varied range of processing methods. Throughout the fields, drip-irrigation systems have been installed to ensure uniform irrigation of the trees and thus consistent quality. All young trees up to the age of 6 years or a size of less than 1.5 meters are harvested manually, the older trees are harvested mechanically, but still selectively.
This selective harvesting is usually done in two passes. In the first harvesting phase, the machines are adjusted to reach only the outermost point of the coffee plant, where the fruit normally ripens first. In the second pass, it is then adjusted to harvest the remaining fruit. Varieties are kept separate, with this lot being comprised of 100% Acaiá coffee.
At Fazenda São Domingos there is a total of about 9,000 square metres of drying terraces where the seeds are dried for between 10 and 15 days. They are then finished off in 8 dryers to achieve the ideal residual moisture. For storage, 8 wooden silos with a capacity of about 2,500 bags are available. In these silos, the coffee usually spends 4-6 weeks before it is later moved to a warehouse for dry-milling.
It is our second year working with this farm and when making selections from the latest harvest we found the same variety and processing combination to be the most delicious.
Article 2 – Río Blanco, Summer Fruit Punch, Peru
The four lots currently comprising the Peruvian coffee in our house blend are from Altagracias Pusma Cruz, Desilio Campos Odeja, Nelida Garcia Togas and Ursulo Maira Garcia. Their coffee farms are named, respectively, El Limon, La Piña, La Mandarina and Los Laureles. El Limon is situated around 1,700 metres in Huancabamba, Piura region. Altagracias has been farming here since she was 22 years old and is working with her family on their 2 hectare farm to produce Caturra, Typica, Bourbon, Pache and Catimor amongst Albizia and Pacay shade trees. Her neighbour in Huancabamba is Nelida, whose 1.25 hectare farm Los Laureles is at 1,510 metres, planted with Caturra and Typica amidst native shade trees. Nelida has been working in coffee her entire life and places great emphasis on working in harmony with nature, preserving biodiversity on the farm. La Piña is in La Zunga, at 1,458 metres in San Ignacio. Desilio who runs the farm has been in coffee production his entire life, and the 1 hectare farm produces bananas and yucca as well as Caturra and Typica cultivars of coffee. Finally, La Mandarina is also close by in Carmen de la Frontera. Ursulo also plants food crops for subsistence and has Bourbon and Caturra trees growing under shade which are intercropped with citrus. The 2 hectare farm is situated at 1,726 metres.
All of the Río Blanco producers are working to high standards and undertaking harvest and processing methodologies in the manner typical to the region. Coffee is organically grown under shade, the coffee cherries are hand harvested via communal work in tandem with their neighbours, The cherries are manually depulped and then wet fermented between 18 and 24 hours before washing and slowly drying for around 15 days on raised beds. It is not the norm to feature such small single farmer lots in a house blend, but through Red Fox Coffee Merchants we were able to make these smaller purchases and subsequently use them alongside a solid Brazilian base coffee to produce a coffee that we think is really balanced and delicious whilst also reflecting growers whose coffee typically gets bundled into anonymised community lots.
