Henrique’s – Fazenda Samambaia
Campos dos Vertenses, Sul de Minas Region, Minas Gerais State, Brasil
Our days on the estate, as a jury for the SanCup award
We were invited by Sancoffee to be on the international judging panel for the “SanCup Award” tasting contest. Only members of the Sancoffee Cooperative (which has around 280 members) have access to this and the international judging panel is tasked with tasting, and then ranking, the top 10 coffees, i.e., those considered to be the best.
Once the ranking has been drawn up, the top 10 coffees are auctioned off and we at Le Piantagioni del Caffè came in second.
The passion of Henrique Cambraia gives us an exceptional Brazilian coffee
Where does the coffee we have selected come from?
Sul de Minas, the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais is an area with a very valuable naturalistic content. This region is locally known as Campo dos Vertenses because it forms a border between two very important basins in Brazil: the Grande River Basin (which runs to the south) and the São Francisco River Basin (which runs to the northeast).
The cool, green hills of this area provide ideal conditions for coffee growing and produce some of Brazil’s finest beans.
The Fazenda Samambaia, member of the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association and of Sancoffee (B-Corp certified since 2019), is owned by Henrique Cambraia. He is the president of Sancoffee and represents the 4th generation of a family growing coffee since 1886.
How is this coffee produced?
Henrique’s mentality is open to experimentation and he strongly believes in the importance of a constant training and in the involvement of the whole team that works on the farm, as well as in an environmentally sustainable farming. After many studies, in 2021, this farm started to produce yeast from its coffee plantations, in order to use it for the fermentation process.
During our last visit, Henrique explained us how he decided, along with his staff, to reposition some coffee plants in order to improve the interaction between the plants and the soil.
Thanks to his dedication and the time he invested in research, his multi-awarder coffees have been judged, in several international competitions, as among the best coffees produced in Brazil.
Some data
- Botanical variety: Yellow Catuaì
- Processing: natural
- Harvest: July
- Drying: 6 days on patio and 3 days in the mechanical dryer
- Altitude: 1,080 m asl
- Quality/screen: NY2 / 17-18
