Castanhas Do Brazil, Cocatrel, Minas Gerais, Brazil | Natural FSC-9256

The Cocatrel Cooperative was founded in 1961 in Tres Pontas and has grown into the second-largest cooperative in Brazil. It has over 6000 members with 11 different buying points across the region. All the coffee is electronically tagged and recorded on delivery with a unique QR code, giving full traceability. Over half of the members of the cooperative grow coffee on land that is less than 10ha in size. At Falcon Specialty we work with a branch of the Cooperative called Cocatrel Direct Trade. They work to source the best coffees and promote them for their members. ‘Castanhas do Brasil’, which translates as "Nuts of Brazil", is a blend made mainly from one particular area called Carmo De Cachoeira. The coffee is selected for its sweet and creamy hazelnut praline profile by the cupping team in the Cocatrel Direct Lab, who assign it to this profile blend. The coffee must have a clean profile and be scoring 83+ on evaluation. All the coffees that are part of this blend are dried in static boxes. These are 1m deep boxes with capacity for 15000 litre volume of cherry, which equates to 25 to 30 bags of green coffee. The boxes have a vented grill at the bottom to allow for air to be circulated from below up through the drying coffee. There are two thermometers at different depths to ensure a safe temperature, remaining below 40c. They are referred to as static as the coffee remains still in the boxes and is not turned or rotated during drying. After it is dried, the coffee is left to rest for 1 to 2 weeks before being milled. This method has allowed the production of more fruity and prominent profiles from the usual profile we associate with Brazil natural coffee.