Sao Silvestre - Brazil

Fazenda São Silvestre has been farmed by the Andrade Brothers since 1991. It is located in the north of Minas Gerais, in an area known as the Cerrado Mineiro on the border with Bahia state.

The farm’s volcanic soils provide ideal conditions for growing the farm’s main varieties - Yellow Icatu, Yellow Catuai and Red Catuaí, as well as new smaller lots of Bourbon and Typica. The beans are harvested when ripe and prepared using the pulped natural process: the cherries are pulped, and the mucilage is left on the beans while they are dried. Depending on climactic conditions, the coffee is either totally sun-dried or completed in two stages where the beans are initially sun-dried, bringing the moisture content down to approximately 20%, and then finished in mechanical dryers, bringing the moisture content of the beans to a maximum of 12%.

After drying the coffee is stored in silos, still protected by the parchment or by the husk. After this period of rest, the coffee is milled and sorted prior to export. There is a BSCA standard cupping lab at the farm, where physical and sensorial analysis is carried out by qualified cuppers.

Fazenda Capim Branco in Paranaiba (Cerrado Mineiro) was the Andrade family’s first farm; however, since the 1970s the family has been very active in establishing new farms so as to expand their cultivation area, all aligned with their mission of producing coffee of the very highest quality. The family acquired São Silvestre farm during this period of expansion.

Combined with the natural conditions of the region, meticulous crop management, forward-thinking crop planning and post-harvest selection, the final result from all Andrade family farms is excellent quality, award-winning coffees that are appreciated both within Brazil and internationally as some of the best coffee the country has to offer.