Brazil Carmo Geisha Carbonic Maceration Ama R-007236 LOT 15

About The Farmer & Farm

Coffee runs in Luiz Paulo’s blood—quite literally. He and his brothers are fourth-generation producers from the Carmo de Minas region of Brazil. Along with some of his cousins, they have helped to elevate the local coffee culture and maintain its history over the years.

Despite earning a degree in Business Administration and pursuing a career in banking, Luiz could not resist coffee’s call, and returned home to take over a portion of the family business in 2004. Working with his cousin, Jacques Pereira, Luiz came to realize that their region had a unique identity, a set of specific attributes that gives local coffee distinct flavors, placing them amongst the best in the world.

And yet, despite this inherent excellence that literally grew in their soil, there was a lack of appreciation of coffee in the region. Luiz and Jacques knew that they had an opportunity to better the lives of everyone in the region, and so they began their focus on specialty coffee, seeking to validate the coffees of Carmo de Minas.

The project grew little by little, and Luiz found he was able to shift the world’s perspective on Brazilian coffee as it did. In 2007, he and Jacques founded CarmoCoffees. Their goal is to explore the possibilities of a sustainable coffee business—they only export coffee through direct trade channels, and invest in research on specialty coffees in the Mantiqueira de Minas region.

Bringing visibility to the excellence of the region’s coffees as they’ve done has improved the lives of coffee growers and their families immensely.

“My passion,” Luiz says, “is the search for quality. It means being able to improve our coffees every year. I love being part of that process.”

Geisha Varietal & Growing Process

The Geisha coffee plant has a lower yield compared to other varietals. It takes longer for the cherries to mature, and each plant grows fewer of them. Because of this, we always harvest our Geisha coffees by hand, treating each bean with the utmost care, appreciating the effort involved in each step of the process.

When drying the coffee, it is treated using food-grade considerations, avoiding any risk of contamination. It is dried in hanging terraces, under a roof that provides UV protection and a controlled temperature, resulting in more uniform drying conditions.

The producer is involved in every step of this process, up to when the coffee is packed in waterproof bags.

The result of this meticulous process is a cup of coffee that is both expressive and delicious.