Buying coffee from Claudio is not easy. I mean this in a good way! With coffee this good it is always in high demand. We were lucky enough to be able to get some Grota and there was a separation, which allowed us to offer this 8 bag micro-lot from the main crop. This lot is high scoring and a great way of showcasing how good coffee can taste from this farm and region. In a similar way, Claudio won the cup of excellence in 2010(?). This woke up a few organic coffee skeptics too. Unusually, everything produced at Grota is a pulped natural. Even in years like the previous harvest.
Farm: Sitio Grota Sao Pedro
Owner: Claudio Carneiro
Region: Carmo de Minas
Farm Size: 60 hectares
Altitude: 1250 Meters above sea level
Process: Pulp Natural
Certification: Organic
Varietal(s): Yellow bourbon & Yellow Catuai
Roast: Light filter.
Cup potential:
Aromatics: sweet, like condensed milk and cocoa.
Body: Creamy
Flavour potential: Burst of jammy red fruits, citrus, filled-chocolate, white fruit. Sweet.
Filter recipe: 60-65g per litre. If you are not getting the fruity element, tighten up your grind and or check your water filter.
Espresso: If you have a spare week and you can bare it, this coffee will be SO much better for resting. 16-17g of coffee into 34-35g of liquid for milk-based drinks 23-26 seconds as a rough guide, if in doubt taste it! No need for long extractions. Lots of soluble. For espresso excluding milk, run it nice and long! same 16-17g in and run 45-50g of liquid.
Sitio Grota is an organic farm formerly big on rearing cattle with an onsite dairy too.
Claudio Carneiro is the guy we should all want to be. Smart, principled and puts the future of his family ahead of everything else. On the estate, he has made a fish farm, and a confectionery factory, whilst continuing to be the king of pulped natural organic coffee in the area. Claudio didn’t have this (former) family farm fall in his lap. Traditionally, in many coffee-growing countries, the family farm is divided by the amount of offspring. Claudio has spent years salvaging and rebuilding the former family farm and making it possible for his family to remain there with a range of businesses running there. Coffee is still very much at the core.
The Godfather of Brazilian Specialty?
