Behind the Beans: Sao Silvestre from Brazil

Fazenda São Silvestre has been farmed by the Andrade Brothers since 1991. It is located to the north of Minas Gerais, in an area known as the Cerrado Mineiro, on the border with Bahia state. This special lot has been produced using a natural anaerobic fermentation process.
The Andrade Family is one of the oldest coffee-producing families in the Cerrado Mineiro region; part of the highly regarded coffee producing state of Minas Gerais. Fazenda Capim Branco in Paranaiba (Cerrado Mineiro) was the Andrade family’s first farm; dating back to 1901. Since the 1970s, the family has been very active in establishing new farms to expand their cultivation area. Today, Andrade Bros Estate Coffees is managed by brothers Ismael and Eduardo Andrade. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, Ismael and Eduardo’s mission is to produce the very highest quality coffee with passion and respect for its people and the environment.
In the early '90s, the Andrade family decided to expand production, volume and improve quality altogether, acquiring the São Silvestre Farm in Serra do Salitre, also part of Cerrado Mineiro. The farm is situated at an altitude ranging between 1100 - 1220 meters above sea level, with perfectly balanced wet and dry seasons. These perfect conditions, combined with meticulous crop management, forward-thinking crop planning and post-harvest selection, mean the final result from Andrade family farms are award-winning coffees; known both nationally and internationally as some of the best coffee the country has to offer. The farm’s volcanic soils provide ideal conditions for growing the farm’s main varieties - Yellow Icatu, Yellow Catuai and Red Catuaí. For this particular micro-lot, the coffee is 100% Red Catuai. Coffee is selectively harvested using a mechanical harvester, before passing through an electronic selector to separate any under or overripe cherries. The remaining cherries are then transported into 200 litre barrels in order to ferment with the ideal ambient temperature. This fermentation occurs for 120 hours, after which the coffee is dispersed onto raised beds to dry for 32 days in the open sun. Once completely dried, the coffee is hulled and set to rest prior to export.