Brazil - Danielle Fonseca

about the producer.

Danielle Fonseca always dreamed of living at her grandparents' coffee farm. Growing up in the city and visiting on weekends she developed a love of the plants and animals here - but coffee wasn’t always her passion. Like most in Brazil her grandfather practised traditional cultivation and all the harvested coffee was sold to the local mill, so the family never tasted their own coffee. Her father would purchase roasted coffee from the local store and Dani never enjoyed it. One day Dani decided it was time to roast their own coffee and brew it at the farm - she got her hands on a cast iron pan, heated the beans on the stove and to her surprise enjoyed the smell of coffee for the first time! This simple moment sparked a curiosity that grew into a passion for coffee quality.

After graduating from university with a degree in environmental and civil engineering Danielle moved full time to her family farm with the dream of developing sustainable farming practices and producing high quality micro lots. She and her husband set out on a mission to meet with some of Brazil’s best producers and learn their techniques and strategies. Perhaps the most impactful mentor was Allesandro Hervaz, a renowned coffee producer in Mantiqueira de Minas who produces exceptional coffees and has won multiple Cup of Excellence awards. Dani learned not only about the best varieties and processing techniques, but also the importance of regenerative agriculture, practices that feed the soil and ensure the long term health of the land.

Back at the farm Danielle implemented this holistic approach to coffee farming and named the project Fazenda Comtu, aiming to integrate coffee production with environmental preservation and the regeneration of local ecosystems. She partnered with reNature, a global organization supporting the transition from conventional farming to regenerative agriculture, which was crucial for securing funding for the creation of experimental agroforestry areas on the farm. Planting banana trees and cover crops amongst the coffee plants increases shade and moisture in the soil, retaining vital nutrients and improving microbial diversity. This model provides healthier plants, higher quality coffee cherries, and long term sustainability for Dani’s farm and serves as an example for other producers interested in adopting more responsible and ecological practices. The farm regularly hosts visits from producer groups to share these new agroforestry management techniques in coffee farming.

At the same time, as Dani produced her first crops she learned about the challenges of coffee farming and barriers to improving farm performance and profitability. Her background in engineering led to a genius solution. Connecting with a software developer she created a new platform to track and manage every detail of every lot including inputs, labour, harvest, processing, drying, and eventual cup quality. This unprecedented amount of data and oversight allows producers to manage each lot from planting to shipment and track true costs to ensure profitability. Perhaps most incredibly Dani made the platform available to any producer for free and now along with her sister Priscilla Fonseca has developed a quality and sustainability focused producer’s group called Noca. Currently Noca has 22 members with an extensive wait list to join. All that stands in the way is building new relationships with roasters around the world.

10 years after moving to her family farm Danielle Fonseca is a trailblazer in Sul de Minas, one of Brazil’s most established coffee growing regions, pursuing her vision of a future where Brazil is known not just for quantity, but for quality and sustainability excellence. She believes that, through innovation and the integration of sustainable solutions, it is possible to transform coffee farming into an activity that respects the environment and creates a lasting legacy for future generations.

about the coffee.

Danielle’s focus on sustainability is matched by her commitment to quality and producing exceptional microlots at Fazenda Comtu. This lot is a mix of the sweet and stable Mundo Novo - a well known Brazilian hybrid of Typica and Bourbon - and Red Icatú, a more recent leaf rust resistant hybrid between robusta and bourbon, further bred with Mundo Novo for optimal cup quality.

The cherries are harvested mechanically as in most of Brazil, but Dani is able to calibrate the picker to select the ripe part of the plant to allow for multiple harvests and achieve a higher yield of the best cherries. Each day’s harvest is carefully sorted before being packed into large sacks and placed in a shaded cool area for a controlled 5 day anaerobic fermentation. The cherries end fermentation around 8oC, which develops the intense fruit qualities of this lot. After the 120 hour fermentation the cherries are laid out in thin layers to halt fermentation as quickly as possible and over the next 15-20 days reduce the moisture to 15%. At this point the cherries are almost completely dried, but first Dani gathers the coffee into sacks to rest so that it can equalize bringing all the seeds to a consistent level, only then are the cherries laid out on the patio again and dried to the final 10% moisture content. For this final drying stage the cherry is moved into thicker layers to slow the drying process. Drawing out the final stage promotes a more even drying and better consistency across the lot.

cup profile.

black plum | berry | manuka honey

The result of Danielle Fonseca’s careful processing is intense fruit sweetness and body. The cup starts with dark stone fruit and berry notes. The coating round mouthfeel reminds us of honey, with these sweet sticky notes lingering in the finish. It’s exciting to taste such distinct fruit notes from this Brazilian microlot.