Brazil Sítio Forno Grande

José Schiavo came to Forno Grande, in the hills above Castelo, over thirty-five years ago, carrying four generations of coffee farming with him. The neighbors said the land was too cold and told him to grow tomatoes. His first crops froze. He planted again, the weather turned, and the coffee took; today his neighbors grow it too.

For decades the family sold commercial coffee. The turn came in 2019, when José's daughter Jacqueline, who had planned on a career in banking, read a line from a friend that stuck: coffee is a fruit, and you pick fruit when it's ripe. She took a coffee course, learned to cup and score, and the family built its own washing and drying on the farm. The result is a washed coffee cleaner and sweeter than any we've tasted from Brazil.

We bought this lot in 2024 and held it in our archive, frozen at peak, until the menu had room for it. It has matured into a rich, creamy cup of dried cherry, cacao nib, and praline.