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Beans: Sitio Bela Vista, Mundo Novo, Natural, Ouro Fino, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Shop: Varietals Coffee, Webshop, Enkhuizen, The Nertherlands.
Varietals Coffee – Sitio Bela Vista: Background information.
North of the great city of Sao Paulo you will find the state of Minas Gerais, home of many high quality coffee farms in Brazil. One of those farms is the farm of Noel Isaias in the municipality of Ouro Fino where the Sitio Bela Vista originates from. The history of the farm dates back to the 1980’s when Noel’s father bought 72 acres of land in Ouro Fino to grow potato’s. In 1994 it was Noel who bought 3.6 acres of land to cultivate coffee and has done so for the last 23 years.
In 2017 Noel Isaías received a visit from the company Falcafe receiving an invitation to participate in the Neighbors and Friends program, where he receives annual property consulting and tasting support for his lots. Today Noel Isaías produces 150 bags where the largest percentage is specialty coffees in nano-lots.
The farm is located in a mountainous region located at an altitude of about 1370 meters above sea level. The climate is tropical with an average of 18 degrees Celsius throughout the year. During the summer this temperature can go as high as 36 degrees Celsius and during the winter as low as 5 degrees Celsius. During the summertime, the rainfall produces a lot of water for the coffee plants while the winters are relatively dry.
This particular nanolot consists out of the Mundo Novo variety and has undergone a natural process.
Sitio Bela Vista: Opening the package.
The Varietals Coffee package has a luxurious look it with the blue colour and golden writings. There is a degassing valve and zip-lock to keep the coffee as fresh as possible. On the front of the package you will find a lot of information on the coffee: variety, process, region, altitude, trade type and thorough tasting notes. I especially love the tasting notes since this will help the consumer to ‘discover’ flavours and aroma’s that might have eluded them otherwise.
On the back of the package there is a fun piece of information. Varietals Coffee explains the difference between ‘Variety’ and ‘Varietal’ and how one can use it in conversations, blogs etc. There is also some information on the social media outlets of the roastery. The beans are crispy and release a fruity flavour that turns a little sour after a couple of seconds.
Sitio Bela Vista: The tasting.
I have brewed this coffee on the Siphon, Hario V60 and Aeropress. Although this coffee was great on all brewers my personal favourite was the Hario V60. It was on this brewer that I got the best aroma’s out of the coffee.
And it’s the aroma’s that really impressed me in this coffee. With each passing temperature, the properties of the aroma’s changed.
When brewing this coffee you will find a soft Lavender on the nose in the beginning. Pretty quickly this will change into a super sweet, sugary vanilla aroma that will fill the room you’re in. This will make you keep taking in the aroma. When drinking the coffee, the aroma will change according to the temperature. When its warm, the aroma of dried fruit will pop up as a hint in the background. When brewing on the Aeropress I could detect a hint of orange and watery tangerine on the nose as well.
When you take a sip of your coffee you will find that there is a lot going on inside your mouth. Swirl the coffee round and slurp oxygen inside to get the most out of the flavours. A sweet watery orange flavour is accompanied with a short sweet tutti frutti flavours. The Tutti Frutti fades away fairly quickly and is replaced with a soft vanilla. With the vanilla you can detect a sugary tea like aspect on the palette. The coffee cools down over time and it’s then that a watery orange peel appears. At that time, you will notice that the mouthfeel of the coffee changes into a jasmine green tea.
The brew now feels a little ‘rough’ in your mouth. Don’t mix it up with an astringent mouthfeel because it has nothing to do with that. It’s the mouthfeel that you get when drinking Jasmine tea. In the aftertaste there is a soft lavender and raw cocoa that remains there for a short while. The acidity of this coffee is a clear citric acidity that is fairly high.
Varietals Coffee – Sitio Bela Vista: The verdict.
Varietals Coffee has already set a name for itself in a short period of time. The founders, Toska and Jan Schuitemaker, are famous roasters in The Nertherlands and they have delivered yet again. This Sitio Bela Vista natural is a great coffee. I love how the aroma’s of this coffee stand out. In every temperature you will detect a different aroma. The balanced flavour profile, mouthfeel and clear acidity make this a coffee that you could drink at any time of the day. The Sitio Bela Vista is still for sale on the website of Varietals Coffee. In times like these I want to promote this coffee roaster, so click on this link to go directly to the website of Varietals Coffee for this specific coffee.