Everything about next year is decided in four days in October.

The rains come back and the whole farm flowers inside about four days. Nothing we do after that changes the size of the crop very much — it only changes how much of it we lose.

O anoSet – Dez

Six phases, and only one of them is the harvest.

Florada

Set – Out

The rains come back and the whole farm flowers inside about four days. Everything about the next harvest is decided in that week and none of it is up to us.

Granação

Nov – Fev

The cherry fills. This is when a dry spell costs you a crop and there is nothing to do about it but watch the gauge.

Maturação

Mar – Mai

Colour comes up block by block, lowest and warmest first. We cup the previous safra and sell what is left of it.

Colheita

Mai – Ago

Eleven weeks. Ninety-six people on the farm instead of fourteen. Picked selectively by hand on eight of nine blocks.

Terreiro

Mai – Set

Raised beds, turned by hand six to eight times a day, eleven to twenty-two days depending on the process and the weather.

Embarque

Jul – Dez

Rest in wooden bins for at least 30 days, then hull, screen, cup, bag and ship out of Santos.

Rendimento31.2 best · 14.9 worst

Ten years, including the two we would rather not show you.

2021

Off year on top of the worst drought since 1961. We took 14.9.

2022

Should have been our best year in a decade. The July 2021 frosts burned back the new wood the 2022 crop was going to grow on, and we took 17.3 in an on year.

2023

First year the frost-stumped rows carried anything.

Rendimento por talhãosacas / ha

The same ten years, block by block.

Talhão	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
T01 Pedra	29	21.4	31.8	23.1	31.4	15.2	17.6	24.6	30.2	24.3
T02 Córrego	31.5	23.3	34.6	25.1	34.2	16.5	19.2	26.8	32.9	26.4
T03 Alto	23.9	17.6	26.2	19	25.9	12.5	14.5	20.2	24.9	20
T04 Meia-Encosta	29.8	22.1	32.8	23.7	32.3	15.6	18.2	25.3	31.1	25
T05 Bourbon Velho	20.2	14.9	22.2	16	21.9	10.6	12.3	17.1	21	16.9
T06 Chapada	32.9	24.4	36.2	26.2	35.7	17.3	20.1	28	34.3	27.6
T07 Divisa	27.3	20.2	30	21.7	29.6	14.3	16.6	23.1	28.4	22.8
T08 Baixo	30.7	22.7	33.7	24.4	33.3	16.1	18.7	26	32	25.7
T09 Cafundó	25	18.5	27.5	19.9	27.1	13.1	15.2	21.2	26	20.9

Every number in that table is the farm's yield for the year multiplied by that block's own factor — Chapada carries 1.16, the twenty-nine-year-old Bourbon Velho carries 0.71. It is computed, not typed, so the table and the chart above it cannot disagree. Anything under 18 is in red.

ProcessoThree of them

What happens between the tree and the bag.

Natural

Whole cherry dried on the raised beds with the fruit still on it. Sweetest, riskiest, the one that goes wrong if it rains in July.

4 lots in 2025 · 782 sacas · 19–22 days on the beds

Pulped natural

Cereja descascado

Skin off, mucilage left on, then dried. The Brazilian middle road and about 60% of what we make.

4 lots in 2025 · 742 sacas · 11–13 days on the beds

Washed

Lavado

Fully fermented and washed. Cleanest cup, least body, and we only do it on Alto.

1 lot in 2025 · 62 sacas · 14–14 days on the beds

Coffee drying on raised beds, turned by hand — Eleven to twenty-two days, depending on the process and on whether it rains in July