Brazil: Ipanema, B15 "Tangerine"

Starting with a blast of tangerine, a layer of sweet milk chocolate carries you along to a sprinkle of sultanas on the finish and a long aftertaste of caramel.

The Ipanema Premier Cru program is one we've supported since its first harvest, but now you can really see it is hitting its stride. We feel that the flavour notes in particular are notably accurate this year to how the coffee is tasting once it has arrived with us at our Stafford roastery. The cupping team at Fazenda Rio Verde have selected “tangerine” as the defining characteristic of this Natural processed Yellow Bourbon.

Sprung From The Mountains

Fazenda Rio Verde was founded in 1887 and is one of Ipanema Coffee's oldest farms. It’s situated in the Mantiqueira Mountains, translated from the Tupi Guarani native language as "mountains that cry", for the abundant springs and waterfalls that cover the area. The mountain range crosses the south-east of Brazil, straddling the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro, extending north-east for approximately 500 kilometres. The farm itself is located in the municipality of Conceição do Rio Verde at elevations of up to 1,300 metres above sea level, spread over a total area of 1,566 hectares, of which 626 are dedicated to production of delicious coffee and 167 hectares to other crops.

773 hectares of the estate are reserved as environmentally protected virgin forests containing waterfalls, hiking trails, and 51 springs. To ensure preservation of this important local ecosystem, Ipanema have created the Environment Monitoring Centre (EMC) in a renovated henhouse - conceived as a centre of management, analysis, and monitoring of the local water, soil, vegetation, climate, and residue.

Nature & Nurture

High elevations combined with mountainous topography climbing all the way between 900 and 1,330 m.a.s.l create a unique microclimate with mild temperatures and an average rainfall of 1,600 mm a year. This, plus the clay soil rich in minerals and nutrients, is ideal for growing high-quality coffee but can be a challenge for normal Brazilian coffee production methods. The standout coffee varieties grown on the farm are Yellow Bourbon, Yellow Catuai, and Red Acaia, but a research area of 20,000 square metres containing 10,000 coffee trees also grows 48 different varieties to evaluate their potential cup quality. The coffee processing equipment used at the Ipanema Project reflects the most advanced technology available in wet milling and mechanical drying in the world. Ipanema and Colombian manufacturer JM Estrada's teams of engineers worked together for three years to create the industry layout, including stainless steel equipment, three stages of cleaning, and a colour sorting system to reduce the usage of natural resources. Processing methods vary massively across the coffee-producing world and this is an example of the most cutting-edge technology on offer.

Ipanema Coffee’s Unique Approach

The farm is sectioned into 69 plots (referred to as “glebes”), the best 34 of which are selected to be part of the Premier Cru project Ipanema run each year. The coffee from each of these areas gets harvested and processed as separate lots which are identified by a code (e.g. A70). The letter refers to the coffee variety (B for Bourbon, C for Catuai, etc) and the number refers to one of the 34 glebes. Once each lot has been processed, the owners take a unique step: a panel of tasters go through and cup the coffees, picking a single standout flavour descriptor to assign to each.

This particular coffee was grown on glebe B15, a 1.82-hectare plot of land growing Yellow Bourbon at 1,060-1,091 m.a.s.l. After selective hand picking, whole coffee cherries were pre-dried on a conventional patio for 159 hours before moving to vertical dryers for a further 72 hours. The Ipanema team designated this lot as “tangerine”. We agree this is a sweet rather than acidic citrus flavour that really shouts tangerine. It's a great example of how carefully managed Natural coffees can be clean and elegant but still present vivid and unusual flavour profiles.

• Country: Brazil
• State: Minas Gerais
• Region: Mantiqueira mountains
• Municipality: Alfenas
• Farm: Fazenda Rio Verde
• Glebe: B15
• Glebe size: 1.82 hectares 
• Elevation: 1,060 - 1,091 m.a.s.l
• Varietal: Yellow Bourbon
• Harvesting method: Selective handpicking
• Processing method: Natural
• Drying time: Conventional patio for 159 hours, vertical dryers for 72 hours 
• Blossoming date: October 18th, 2024 
• Harvest date: May 24th, 2025 

Cupping notes: Tangerine, sultana, caramel.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean Cup: 6/8
• Sweetness: 6.5/8
• Acidity: 6/8
• Mouthfeel: 6.5/8
• Flavour: 6.5/8
• Aftertaste: 6.5/8
• Balance: 6.5/8
• Overall: 6.5/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 87/100

If you'd like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post “What Do Coffee Cupping Scores Actually Mean?” and if you'd like to try cupping yourself, we've got a guide to that too! What is Coffee Cupping.

Medium dark
Through the gap and let this develop a little in the gap before pushing through to the edge of second as the roast finishes.