Producer: Lucia Maria da Silva Dias (Tuca Dias)

Origin: São Sebastião de Grama, Brazil

Tasting Notes: Toasted Almond, Dried Pineapple, Caramel, Cherry

Varietals: Yellow Bourbon

Altitude: 950 - 1450 masl

Process: Pulped Natural

12 oz Whole Bean Coffee

The flavors in this cup are quite unexpected when thinking of a pulped natural Brazilian coffee. While there’s still a grounding sweetness and body, there are also hints of brightness like dried pineapple and fresh orange likely contributed by the yellow bourbon plant varietal.

Information from our partners at Ocafi:

Lucia Maria da Silva Dias (AKA Tuca Dias) is a passionate and creative coffee producer and with her dedicated team at Santa Alina she is committed to producing a wide variety of high-quality coffee. Sitting at altitudes between 950 and 1,450 m.a.s.l., the farm covers almost 900 hectares of predominantly hilly terrain, of which 239 hectares are used for coffee cultivation. The average annual production of 5,500 bags mostly comes from the farms micro-lots. Over the decades, Fazenda Santa Alina has gained a reputation for consistently producing some of the region’s most outstanding specialty coffee. This beautiful fazenda also supports a Eucalyptus plantation and the diversity of the farm’s coffee varieties is mirrored in the many native trees, such as cercopia, ipês and Palmito Juçara that thrive on the farm.

Fazenda Santa Alina was purchased by brothers Joaquim Bernardes da Silva Dias and Lindopho de Caravalho Dias in 1907 and has been in the family ever since. During the 1930s, Joaquim Bernardes de Caravalho took over the farm and increased coffee production, growing mainly red bourbon. However, coffee production really took off on the farm during the 60’s when Joaquim’s grandson greatly expanded the farm and modernized operations with new equipment and infrastructure. The current owner, Tuca Dias, left the family farm at a young age to live in Sao Paulo, living in the city for many years and with successful career as architect and no plans to return to the farm. After the death of her grandfather (Joaquim Bernardes de Caravalho), the family planned to rent out Fazenda Santa Alina and abandon the coffee growing they had done so passionately since 1907. In 2010, however, Tuca returned to Vale de Grama. Since then, she has managed the farm with the family's business partner, Rodrigo Fernandes. The duo have made it their mission to increase the production of high-quality Micro-lots and to continue to improve the living standards of the local community.

The fazenda is constantly evolving. Tuca and Rodrigo have recently developed terracing on the farm, to both help improve quality coffee production and the ease of access to the higher regions of the farm. The terracing helps to manage the moisture levels in the night and early morning in the lower elevations, increasing the consistency of the cherries’ development. Alongside the terrace, the farm has also recently been provided with a fully equippe coffee lab and new milling facilities for better analysis and processing. Santa Alina cultivates an astonishingly wide array of coffee varieties, employs multiple processing methods, and provides coffee for three out of five of our lines. Tuca and Rodrigo are aided on the farm by Edivaldo, Rodrigo’s right hand man, and the famous Mama Lucia, the best cook in Minas Gerias!

The local community is very important in Fazenda Santa Alina, Tuca has transitioned from a top-down to bottom-up management style in which the workers have direct input into the daily running of farm operations. The fazenda is also dedicated to investing into their employees, both the resident and seasonal workers, and regularly offers educational courses, housing improvements and social engagements with music and food. Tuca is also always striving to improve the environmental projects on the farm, solar panels were recently installed and the fazenda is engaged with our Mata Atlantica project, planting trees in the area.