Time to tell you a little more about our next stop in South America: the almighty Brazil. It's the 20th of October, and we arrive on the eve of the national elections. Brazilians are open and cheerful people par excellence, even when it comes to discussing politics and expressing their point of view. The vast majority believe the country needs change, although the level of uncertainty is palpable. A four-hour journey to São Lorenzo gives you enough time to form an opinion about the current situation, where extremes have led to despair among its population.

Brazil is the largest country in South America in terms of both area and population, making it the largest economic power in Latin America. One of its main sectors is agriculture, designed to feed not only the continent but the entire world. Coffee is no exception, as Brazil is, unsurprisingly, the world's leading producer. During our trip, we witnessed how the modernization of processes has been the cornerstone of this phenomenon, and consequently, the scale we're accustomed to when categorizing coffee farms, in terms of size, also follows a different pattern compared to the country's general layout. To give you an idea, it's common to find immense coffee plantations in Brazil, equipped with a circular irrigation system using a multi-kilometer-long articulated arm and drying patios so vast they could cover several football fields.

As is our custom, we prefer to focus on the exceptions, and in this case, we found them in Carmo de Minas, a municipality in the Serra da Mantiqueira region. The Mantiqueira de Minas region is located northeast of São Paulo and Espírito Santo and northwest of Rio de Janeiro, with its capital and main port being Vitória. During our time in this region, we visited a cooperative with an excellent producer support program, highly focused on specialty coffee production. This year was particularly important for our direct engagement efforts in Brazil, as we decided to shift our focus and concentrate on identifying consistent producers with whom we can collaborate year after year, helping them achieve, through teamwork, the quality we seek in our coffees.

The first step in the process was to conduct an intensive cupping session to identify promising lots and, through them, connect with producers committed to producing natural coffees with fruity profiles and hints of cocoa. Our goal was to find sweet and, therefore, well-balanced coffees. The cooperative has 661 members who produce around 150,000 bags of coffee annually. It also has a team of agronomists who contribute their technical expertise to promote modern cultivation techniques, aiming to create a balance between productivity and quality while respecting the environment.