Super sweet and silky smooth, this is a cup full of sugared almonds! An edge of milk chocolate on the finish and raisin on the aftertaste completes it.
We've been buying coffee from Fazenda Inglaterra since 2011. A decade-plus of Stephen Hurst's coffee on our cupping table, and it never disappoints. Stephen is a long-time friend of Ozone and the founder of Mercanta, one of the most respected green coffee importers in the world. This season we picked five coffees from his farm. This is the second to be released: a natural processed lot of mixed varietals.
A brew begun 80 million years ago
Fazenda Inglaterra sits on the border of Minas Gerais and São Paulo in south-east Brazil, close to the spa town of Poços de Caldas. It's one of the country's most celebrated growing regions: volcanic soils, high elevation (between 950 and 1,300 metres), dry winters and mild summers.
The landscape has a story worth telling. The whole area sits inside a caldera formed by the collapse of an 80-million-year-old geological intrusion. It looks like the crater of a supervolcano. It isn't one. But the terrain it created is striking, and the conditions it produces are exactly what great coffee needs.
The farm grows Bourbon, Icatu, Acaia, Catuai, and Canario. This lot draws from across that whole mix.
Half of Fazenda Inglaterra remains untouched Mata Atlântica rainforest. Stephen's commitment there is unequivocal: "As long as I own it, it will stay that way."
Stephen's dream, realised
Stephen founded Mercanta in 1996 and has spent the decades since travelling the world, sourcing green coffee, and building relationships with producers. All that time, the idea of owning his own farm was there in the background. Waiting.
When friends in Brazil mentioned a small farm was up for sale, he went to take a look. He knew immediately it was the one.
The farm's original name was Fazenda Toca Da Onça: "hiding place of a small wildcat." The neighbours renamed it after Stephen took over, giving it the Portuguese word for England. A nod to his roots. The previous owners had left it abandoned, so Stephen, alongside his friends Gabriel and Cristiano, had to start almost from scratch. Old trees revived, new ones planted, a farm rebuilt with thirty years of industry knowledge behind every decision.
- Country: Brazil
- Region: Minas Gerais
- City: Poços de Caldas
- Farm: Fazenda Inglaterra
- Producer: Stephen Hurst
- Farm size: 10 hectares
- Coffee growing area: 5 hectares
- Elevation: 1,200 m.a.s.l.
- Variety: Mixed
- Processing method: Natural