Back to the Sao Joao vist.....

Well the people from Java loved the coffee, specially the Bourbon. The yellow  Bourbon is a special species of coffee, a very delicate coffee bean.  The color varies from yellow to pale straw, often with a red center. They are very smooth to drink.  They also tasted the Icatu and the Catuai, a much more common species in Brazil. The following day we went to visit some neighbor's farm. The farm from Paulo Tassinari, and the farm from Olavo Monteiro de Carvalho. Paulo Tassinari is known for his gourmet coffee, a beautiful farm  at a very high altitude. We had to take a truck  up the hill,  to see the plantation from up the mountain. Olavo's farm is more of a horse ranch, even though he has some coffee, it is not his primary business. What we found interesting at his place was the cooperative he has for the farm workers; the wives work with arts and crafts that they later sell in Rio de Janeiro. They also have school for the kids, a great social benefits for the workers. Then we visited a local roaster. It was great for me to start learning the different coffees, the different plantation methods etc.  Sergio's  harvest is hand picked. He test the cherries still on the the branch for humidity. When it is right he does the first harvest, only cherries that are ripe enough are picked.  Every 2 hours, a truck takes the cherries back to be washed, and the process starts. Each tree is picked two to three times during the season. This is the first step in harvesting a good gourmet coffee. Only the perfect cherries are harvest therefore the hope is that at the end of the process, we will only have perfect coffee beans. The season in the highlands of Rio starts in April, way ahead of the rest of the country. Because of his proximity to the ocean ( 145 kilometers from Rio de Janeiro) the season starts before the rest of the country.