Daterra - Our Plot Project

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MEET THE PRODUCER | Words like "organic" and "sustainable" have become big buzz words in the food industry and in popular culture, and specialty coffee is no exception. The problem is, they don't often coexist on the same farms. Those farms which have worked so hard to obtain an organic certification are often not growing coffee in a way that is holistically sustainable. The Our Plot Project is looking to change that, inviting coffee roasters to come alongside them in a collaborative effort to grow and process coffee in ways that are both sustainable and innovative (and, yes, also organic!).

Here's how it works: Daterra is a massive coffee operation in Brazil, and they've created a really cool concept called the Our Plot Project. Basically, a piece of land was selected for us after we cupped and chose one of the coffee varieties growing on their farm - in our case, Yellow Arara. This plot is ours to do with as we please, provided it meets three primary criteria: quality, sustainability, and scalability. Our friends at Coffee Collective in Denmark, who are also participating in the Our Plot Project, outlined these three criteria really well, so we'll let them jump in here:

Quality: First, we need high quality to make the product relevant and interesting for consumers.

Sustainability: Second, it has to be grown in a manner that improves the health of the earth.

Scalability: Finally, it only has real relevance if it can be scaled up to actually have an impact on a large scale.

TRUST THE PROCESS | This year, we continued to explore different yeasts added during fermentation and their unique effects on the resultant cup of coffee. After harvest, we broke our lot into three microlots, each of which underwent three (slightly) different fermentation journeys. Each of the microlots is an anaerobic natural, but they differ in the yeast that was added to them during that anaerobic fermentation period. The lot which was fermented with a white wine yeast, saccharomyces cerevisiae, fared particularly well, and Daterra decided to showcase that coffee as the best example of their yeast fermentation experiments on the farm.

TAKE A SIP | After roasting, we found each of the three lots to be a really great example of Brazilian coffee, but we ultimately fell in love with the cup we experienced when we blended all three together. This coffee is suupppeerrr sweet, with a somewhat "toasted" quality about it that reminds us of praline pecans and crème brûléed citrus. There is a slightly boozy character about it, like aged rum, but all of that aforementioned sweetness pairs with a silky texture like milk chocolate, solidifying this blend as a bonafide crowd pleaser.

You don't see many Brazilian offerings on our menu, but this one is something special - not only for the way it tastes, but also for the project and purpose it represents.  

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Origin | Cerrado Region, Saõ José, Brazil

Producer | Luis N. Pascoal | Our Plot Project

Farm | Daterra

Process | Experimental

Variety | Yellow Arara

Elevation | 1150 masl