It all began at Fazenda Reis, in 1933, when Aneite Reis inherited five hectares of land in Três Pontas, Brazil. Things have moved on an awful lot since then, and the farm, now run by his son, José Carlos Reis, and grandson, Flávio ‘Fafa’ Reis, is at the forefront of the boundary-breaking side of the coffee industry.  

The ‘natural’ process is the world’s oldest, most traditional approach to making coffee from the fruit produced by coffee plants. It’s done, by definition, by laying coffee cherries out to dry with the outer fruit and mucilage surrounding the coffee beans.

When this happens, the cherries begin to ferment and give some of their sweetness and flavour to the coffee cherries. The cherries need to be turned regularly to avoid the risk of unsavoury moulds, which can be tricky. But when it’s done well, it creates a deliciously sweet, full-bodied cup.

Today, some 90 years after his grandfather planted the first trees, Flávio (Fafa to his friends) is taking a pioneering approach to this process rarely seen anywhere else.

In short, he stacks the cherries on top of each other in static boxes, as opposed to laying them out individually, and uses some seriously impressive technology to pump temperature-controlled air through them.

This modifies the fermentation process and creates some fascinatingly complex speciality coffee. In fact, you’ll find a cup like this nowhere else in the world – let alone Brazil.

As a result, he’s won the Taste of Harvest competition three years in a row and a two-star Great Taste Award 2023. Not to mention, he’s renowned in Três Pontas as a phenomenal farmer, and his prestigious neighbours, like Sitio de Jaja, have been quickly taking tips.

Try Fazenda Reis.

José Carlos and Flávio are pretty good to the workers too. So that they can employ locals year-round, and to safeguard them from the volatile coffee industry, they also farm milk, soy beans, and wheat.

If you step on their picturesque farm, you’ll find individual houses for the workers and their families, an on-site church, a football pitch, a nursery, and a medical centre – with a doctor visiting weekly.

José Carlos, Flávio and the rest of those on the farm are exactly the sort of people we’re proud to work with at Pact.

We want to see success for this approach to the traditionally unjust coffee industry – whatever it takes. For this reason, we’re not looking for any exclusivity agreements from Fazenda Reis.  

But we’ll continue to bring you its pioneering coffee and hope to see some of its micro-lots on the menu very soon. 

Try Fazenda Reis.