Summary

Extremely pleasant as espresso, the Jaguara is a Brazilian coffee with high cup score and notes of tropical fruit, pineapple juice, strawberry and, especially, dark chocolate.

The Finer Details

The Origin

This micro-lot comes from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais and, more particularly, from Sao Joao del Rei, in the mesoregion of Capo das Vertentes.

Sao Joao del Rei is a historical Brazilian city, once famous for its gold mines. Thanks to the predominance of high (for Brazil) mountains in the surrounding areas, covered by lush forests among which the most notable is the Ritápolis National Forest, and to the fertile volcanic soil, Sao Joao del Rei is becoming more and more a point of reference in the specialty coffee growers' scene in Brazil.

The Manufacturer

Antonio Wander Garcia, Andre Luiz Garcia (son of Antonio and third generation of the family) and Rubem Carlos own the Jaguara farm.

The name Jaguara comes from both the feline and a homonymous quilombola community in the area (quimbolas were descendants of African slaves escaped from plantations to small remote communities, which lasted until the abolition of slavery, at the end of 800).

Antonio and Andrè are both agronomists, and in particular, Andrè is also a researcher at Procafé Founda, an institution specialized in studying the best pruning techniques for coffee plants.

The cultivars grown by Jaguara are Mundo Novo, Yellow Catuai, Yellow Catucai and Acaia. They are always separated into micro-lots. The best current crop cup scores were reached with the Yellow Catuai, grown at an altitude of 1040 meters. This varietal showed a slower maturation and a better uniformity.

The micro-lot roasted by Nero Scuro is of this variety.

The Process

The cherries were hand-picked and processed according to the natural approach, which generally determines a more sweet and fruity aromatic profile thanks to the migration of sugar from the pulp to the grain during fermentation.

The natural process is straightforward. Cherries are picked daily by hand, to select only the ripe ones. They are then laid out and visually inspected to remove all the over- or under-ripe that may have been picked by mistake, to avoid any unwanted aromatic notes. The cherries are eventually laid out on a concrete patio to get them drying out. They are turned around very often over a period of 10 to 15 days.

Once the desired residual moisture is reached, skin and parchment are mechanically removed. The coffee is packaged into GrainPro bags to protect it from moisture and contaminants. The GrainPro bags are inserted into traditional jute bags.

In the Cup

This coffee is particularly suitable for espresso extractions for which we have thought of the roasting profile.

The cup score of this lot is truly remarkable. In the cup, it shows notes of tropical fruit, pineapple juice, strawberry and above all dark chocolate.