Lot CoE 5e: Sítio Denizar

Producer Estevão Denizar Douro’s great-grandfather, Ângelo Douro, left Italy with his wife and two children for Brazil in 1891. After their arrival in the state of Espírito Santo, the went up the mountains and began their story in Brazil, in the Victor Hugo are of the city of Marechal Floriano, ES. The region is surrounded by high altitude valleys with intense areas of the Atlantic Forest biome, which are preserved by the Douro family to this day.
In the beginning, the family grew corn, beans, cassava, and vegetables as well as coffee. Still today, the coffee growing tradition is maintained, however, it is focused on economic, environmental and social sustainability. Also in recent years, productivity was prioritized on the small 42-hectare family farm, with dense planting and varieties adapted to quality. The influence of region’s favorable climactic conditions (elevation and temperature, primarily) also encourages quality, as does the special care given to the coffee during post-harvest processing, which makes all the difference in the drink.
Today the farm is run by Estevão Douro (fourth-generation), who, together with his sons Thiago, 30, Denizar, 35, and his wife Penha, carry out the entire process from planting, cultivating, harvesting, post-harvest processing and commercializing the coffee. Between coffee harvests, tomatoes, yams and avocados, among other crops, are grown. The farm has a small roastery where part of the production is roasted and commercialized directly to consumers and some businesses. Penha is responsible for the roastery.
The harvest is done selectively according to the maturation of the varieties. At the end of the day, wet processing is performed, that is, the fruits are washed and separated. The coffee cherries are hulled and then demucilaged mechanically. Then they are taken for drying in thin layers on a covered patio. The drying time varies according to the weather. The coffee is stored in high-barrier bags at around 11% humidity until being processed.
The entire process, that is, from the selection of fruits during the harvest, the processing, drying and storage of the coffee is done carefully, with a view to preserving the desirable characteristics, which a good coffee needs.