Notes on a Coffee Estate Visit and Coffee Tastings

This is the little Eliane cow!!! She was my welcome soul mate at my first visit to Sao Joao Estate Coffee.

In order to register a "breed" cow, all of them that are born in the same year, must have the same initial on the name.  My mother's side of the family is from the north of Brazil, a regions famous for its "coroneis" farm owners, but not very well known by its creativity; all of my aunts and uncles had the same initials in their names: Emiliano, Edith, Edine, Eider, Eddie, Edna, and of course me Eliane.  In an effort to honor the other side of the family, Sergio name this cow Eliane. Such a pleasure. Our first encounter was during his 5oth birthday.  During this time I had the opportunity to see and learn a lot about coffee.  

Coffee is harvest once a year.  Gourmet and Special Coffee are most likely hand picked. Because not all the cherries mature at the same time, the workers pick from the same tree 3 or 4 times during the same season.  They even check for humidity to make sure the cherry ripe enough.   Every 2 hours, a truck comes and take the cherries to be washed The bad ones float, so that it does not go thru the process.  The coffee beans are then separated from the skin along with a muselage, that gives the beans its sweetness. After that, they are either laid on a bed or a floor in order to dry so that the beans can separate form the muselage.  I am not telling all the story now, but how is it that we spent $100.00 for a bottle of wine during dinner, but dont mind where our coffee is coming from?????

Coffee is what we take home after dinner, lunch, breakfast. This is the taste in our mouth when we leave the restaurant so why are we not more carefull about the origin of our favorite drink????