Carmo de Minas. Carmo de Minas has become famous over the past few years for the quality of their coffees. Their dominance in the Brazilian Cup of Excellence and the high demand from their coffees has created and then embellished this fame. Joao and Paulinho, cuppers from Cocarive, along with Jacques Pereira from Carmo Coffees, Professor Flavio Borem from the University of Lavras and I sat down to take a look at the “Carmo Difference” in the cup.
The result, the scores were high. Although personally my scores were slightly elevated, (perhaps due to the fact that in Vicosa and Paraty I was using the BSCA scoring which tends to give higher scores – see later blog for comparison of two systems), the scores were fairly homogenous. A strong citric acidity, especially in the bourbons. Fruity aromas — with one cup almost having what I described as a “fleshy fruitiness akin to peach or perhaps papaya.” Another characteristic was the stability of the coffees as they cooled, a characteristic that Carmo Coffees are known for. Having come from Araponga, I noticed that the Araponga coffee on the table (which I am proud to say yours truly correctly identified) had a more complex floral element to both fragrance and flavor, and this is how I was able to separate it. The only flaw with the Araponga was that it lost some potency as it cooled. I will need to revisit this since I did not notice it in Araponga. They told me that Carmo often beat out Araponga coffees in competitions for this very reason, but I want to test some other coffees — other varieties, other roasts — before drawing a conclusion.
Joel cupping at Cocarive.
From left to right, Prof. Borem, Paulinho (PC), and Jacques.
PC prepares samples for roasting.
