"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

I remember thinking that Colombia was a long way away — and I know Dean will agree. It is. Just getting all the way to Monseratte from Perth is an absolute mission! So as I flew over Bogota (according to my in-flight entertainment) with another five hours still to go, plus two more internal flights, I finally grasped just how far I was going and how BIG Brazil is.

My itinerary was tight and I landed in the medium-sized city of Londrina (500,000 people) the night before our first day of the Cup of Excellence (COE). In retrospect, a couple days rest prior to the COE would have been wise. One of the best parts about rocking up to a week of COE is reconnecting with so many familiar faces from around the world. I know I say this all the time, but really, it’s quite exciting. A whole bunch of people who don’t mind talking about coffee non-stop — it’s awesome (although some may call it nauseating). As an extra bonus, a good mate of mine and one of our WA barista trainers, Juliana “Julz” Nobre, also came along as an observer to her first COE.

The Brazilian Cup of Excellence kicked off with a Monday of Calibration (cupping the same coffee over and over and discussing the results), Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were about scoring coffees (3-4 tables of ten coffees) and Friday was all about re-cupping and finalising the scores for the top ten winners. Prior to our arrival, the National jury spent a week narrowing the field down to 40 lots, after which we futher narrowed it down to “COE” coffees i.e. lots scoring 84+ (which ended up being 25 in total). COE is so aptly named, as there is a real sense of pride for the winning farmers and the competition does a brilliant job of encouraging “excellence”. So we slurped our way through the 40 coffees a number of times throughout the week, and did our best as the jury to make sure the “top” coffees were accurately represented by their scores and descriptors. Julz and I talked about organising a Brazilian COE cupping night in Perth when the samples arrive, so ping us an email if you are interested in attending.

Once it was all said and done, Julz and I were back at the airport. Our destination? Sao Paulo … and from there we had the lovely six hour journey to Santo Antonio do Amparo as our next stop. Did I mention that Julz is Brazilian and speaks Portuguese? THANK GOD is all I can say about that. So we saw a bit of country side, rolling hills of lush green with copious amounts of coffee, when suddenly it dawned on me how much the absence of the city or distinctly Brazilian signs made for a very familiar coffee growing country-side. I could have been in one of many different places in the world. Everything was VERY green … so pretty much the exact opposite to Perth — it’s like a nice big hug from mother nature. Santo Antonio do Amparo is a very cute little country town and we spent the next couple of days visiting the surrounding estates (Samambaia, Cerrado, Vila Boa, Arc de Iris and a couple of others) who are supplying our coffee this year. Putting faces to names, eating freshly made local treats (the Dolce con Leite was ridiculous!) drinking home brewed Cachaca and staying in a lovely 5th generation family home was all a massive treat! There was a bit of punching and smiling going on between us as Julz and I realised just how comfortable we were going to be for the next couple days. We’d had no real expectations, so we lucked out big time.

You learn something new on each trip and the incorporation of machine harvesting in Brazil was my lesson this time around. They are fortunate enough to have the gentle sloping hills that make them one of the few growing regions that have the option to harvest mechanically. As a result, large scale farms are common and new advances in technology continue to improve picking and sorting equipment making it hard to fault. I’m almost hesitant to say how smart I think the mechanical harvesting is at the risk of sounding “un-specialty” like … but when I hear how farmers around the world are continuing to struggle with finding labour and with increasing costs, I think the Brazilians are lucky to have this option. A machine vs. handpicked cupping could be on the cards soon.

Keep your eyes peeled for our Brazilian Santo Antonio Coffee which will be hitting our website late Dec. or early Jan.