There was no party on Fazenda da Lagoa this year. But happily, there are still beautiful, hard-won microlots to celebrate.
The Neumann Kaffee Gruppe (NKG) farm traditionally plays host to several long days of judging the hundreds of samples that are submitted to the Forca Café Championship by smallholder farmers. At the week’s end, the farm’s staff puts on an enormous outdoor barbecue where the winners are announced and producers and their families can relax, mingle and enjoy the celebration of their hard work.
Forca Café was founded in 2014 by the Brazil team of Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung, a coffee-focused non-profit with agronomists who work closely with the smallholders. The aim of the contest was to highlight and encourage the producers’ work, and certainly, each year, it’s clear they achieved that.
Celebrating with Forca Cafe producers on Fazenda da Lagoa, in 2019.
“Hands down, the coffees this year were the best yet,” Gerra Harrigan shared in a note to the InterAmerican Trade team, after rallying a group of remote but willing roasters to judge the finalists and enthusiastically marshaling the effort forward.
“These were not traditional Brazil profiles,” Gerra continued. “Many of them could be mistaken for African coffees. They have notes of stone fruit and cherry and a citric acidity reminiscent of washed Yirgacheffe. One of our judges, a very experienced competition judge, remarked that they rival the coffees from the Brazil COE.”
The winning lots were sold in early December, during a three-day online auction, and Gerra eventually won six of her favorite lots for our spot offering list.
Stockler, our sister company in Brazil, truly made it possible for the contest to persevere by dreaming up this remote version. As in past years, it purchased all the coffees from the producers and then additionally paid them any amount bid over that during the auction. Still more good news: On all the lots InterAmerican purchased, we paid an optional 10 cents/pound premium that goes to Casa da Criança, the youth and community center in Santo Antônio do Amparo, a coffee community near Fazenda da Lagoa.
A music class at Casa da Crianca.
“Having visited this wonderful organization twice,” Gerra said of Casa da Criança, “I can report that the work that they do is amazing and impactful. They are a beacon of light and hope and are providing incredible enrichment programs that are changing people’s lives.”
We are thrilled to offer these beautiful microlots, which despite the challenges of the global pandemic were harvested, submitted, judged around the world and, seemingly by some miracle of good intention, were still able to be appreciated for their quality, benefit a worthy cause and (eventually) bring pleasure to coffee drinkers in shops and kitchens across North America. We hope yours will be one of them!
The following six lots will arrive in late February:
First place winner
Valdemir Oliveira dos Reis
Bags: 17
Chocolate, mango, tropical, blueberry; sweet, fruity and clean; vibrant, citric acidity; silky, creamy body.
Second place winner
Savio dos Reis Borges
Bags: 9
Chocolate, fruity, pineapple, jasmine; sweet and clean; bright acidity, silky body.
Fourth place winner
Henrique F. de Carvalho
Bags: 20
Chocolate, strawberry, plum, tropical, floral; vibrant, juicy acidity, creamy, buttery body.
Seventh place winner
Robson Rodrigo Rhodes de Souza
Bags: 10
Chocolate, peanuts, cherry, herbal; lively acidity, velvety body.
Eighth place winner
Zelia Aparecida de Oliveira
Bags: 9
Chocolate, honey, caramel, pineapple, floral; bright, juicy acidity, creamy, syrupy body.
Ninth place winner
Nivaldo dos Reis Soares
Bags: 14
Chocolate, floral, tropical fruits, honey, spice; lively acidity, tea-like body. •
