What is Daterra?
"Daterra is a coffee grower best known for its innovative research, its respect for the environment and its high quality coffee." -from the Daterra
website.
Location: The Cerrado region of Brazil (state of Minas Gerais) and in the Mogiana region (São Paulo).
Altitude: 3,800 feet (average).
Climate: Stable temperature and defined rainy season.
Daterra's land is divided into 88 different "mini-farms" of different varieties. Sunrise is one of these. It's called "Sunrise" because it's on the sunrise side of the hill as opposed to the sunset side of the hill.
These are the cultivars grown at the Daterra Estate:
- Typica - original natural coffee from Ethiopia.
- Bourbon - mutant of typica from the Island of Bourbon.
- Caturra - natural mutant of Bourbon originated in Brazil.
- Mundo Novo - natural cross pollination of Sumatra and Bourbon in Brazil.
- Red and Yellow Icatu - Back cross of Bourbon and Canephora Tetraploid.
- Red and Yellow Catuaí - Back cross between Mundo Novo and Caturra.
One thing I think is cool about Daterra is that they don't sell to huge companies. There's only a couple of smaller importers who prioritize sustainability that get the stuff, and you can't really be a big roaster and get it. There's just not enough of it, so it goes to the little guys. If they wanted to expand their fortune, they could invade untouched forest and produce more to sell to the big guys, but they won't, which is awesome.
Daterra's Philosophy and Principles
Environmental Responsibility: protection of wildlife, water resources, and native forests.
"Daterra's Program for Environment and Wild Animals Preservation is certified by four international organizations, crowning the efforts of an 18-year project to establish Daterra as a fully sustainable coffee producer." Daterra's coffees are grown among the a diverse number of native plants and trees, as well as native animals. This is what we call biodiversity. Instead of eliminating "weed" plants and animals, the native plants are simply managed, and the native animals are accomodated.
Social Responsibility: promoting labor rights.
Brazil is not a land of extreme poverty like so many other coffee growing countries are, and so the Fair Trade certification would be meaningless and actually counterproductive for the Daterra estate. But the Daterra workers' wages more than meet the Fair Trade standards. I'm learning that you can't rely on "buzz words" such as Fair Trade, and it's important to know the story behind each grower.
What Coffeegeek.com has to say about Daterra:
"Daterra started 20 years ago as a project of premium and sustainable agricultural products. Today, 100% of the agricultural business of Daterra is coffee. Its vision is to preserve the planet and protect its people. These are the seeds for a better world and great coffee. Daterra’s values revolve around massive investment in research, quality improvement, solid partnerships and responsible governance, environmental protection, and social development. Daterra grows its own seedlings and uses organic composting in 100% of the plantation. Daterra coffees participated as finalists in two Cup of Excellence competitions and were the coffee of choice of the 2005 and 2006 World Barista Champions."
What Sweet Maria's has to say about Daterra:
"Daterra has always impressed me. It's true, we are not talking about a small family operation, a narritive we like to hear about the source of our coffee. But if I have to buy from a bigger farm, I wish they all were Daterra. Here you have a fairly well-off owner who is clearly passionate and involved in every aspect of the coffee production, despite the fact that this is not his main business. This man is Luis Norberto Pascoal, and he sets the stage for the mission at Daterra: a no-holds-barred approach to acheiving maximum cup quality."
The raw coffee below should be a representative sample. I just grabbed a little handful of what I bought, and put it on white paper and snapped a shot. It's a dry process "natural" coffee. You can see the dried musilage on the beans, which flakes off and blows away when roasted. That's called "chaff" for you nubes. It's more visible on some beans than others. That's just how it goes with natural processed coffees. I think it's a beautiful bean, especially compared to most Brazilians. Looks much better when it's in front of you. Very "new crop".