Tracing Our Coffee to Its Roots: A Week in Brazil with Neil Oney
July 5-12, 2025
Written by: Neil Oney
Varginha, Minas Gerais
Despite multiple inquiries, it turns out Minas Gerais has no connection to Minas Tirith in Middle-earth. Though “minas” means “mines” in Portuguese, I am not convinced that Brazilians are not, in fact, Dwarves from The Lord of the Rings.
What Varginha does have is aliens. They’re everywhere. Varginha is the Roswell of Brazil and had a UFO incident in 1996. There are alien statues scattered around the city, a monument in the center of town, and a UFO-shaped museum as well. We visited on Sunday, and it was a blast. (Editor’s note: Believe it or not, that pun was unintended. I just saw it as I’m reading it back.
On Monday morning, we visited the StoneX Brazil office, met the entire team, and learned about the process of accepting new lots and determining quality. They have a team of green graders who spend all day sorting lots (called “bica”) and selecting the overall quality, separating them into 17/18, MTGB (14/16), 13+, peaberry (called “Moka” in Brazil), Grinders, and low grades. We tasted a selection of all those qualities, and it reminded me why I love working in specialty coffee.
Pictured: Coffee grading at the StoneX Brazil office
Afterwards, we visited Sitio Ipe. Sitio Ipe is a “small” farm of about 80 hectares, of which about 50 hectares are dedicated to coffee. The rest is either natural preserve, corn, or soy. We have purchased from Sitio Ipe for about four years, including several award-winning microlots through the Best-of Minasul competition. The owner is Marjorie Pereira, and the farm is managed by her son Pedro. Pedro gave us an excellent tour around the farm, including a ride on the harvesting machine. As my first farm visit in Brazil, it couldn’t have been better. In addition to machine harvesting, they also have hand-picking, and several areas of the farm are being replanted after the frost from 2021.
Pictured: Sitio Ipe
Pictured: Pedro Pereira (left) and Neil Oney (right) at Sitio Ipe.
Interesting fun fact: “Fazenda” means farm, but refers to larger farms, kind of like “Estate” in other countries (Like our Nicaragua La Virgen Estate). “Sitio” also means farm, but is for small farms of 5 hectares or less. It was not clear why the 80-hectare Sitio Ipe was called a “sitio.”
After the farm visit, we had dinner, which consisted of French fries and meat.
Tuesday was dedicated to Fazenda Bela Vista. A long-time supplier to StoneX Specialty, we have a great relationship with them. This is a much bigger farm than Sitio Ipe, with the main farm being 150 or so hectares of farmland with 50 hectares set aside for preservation. What is interesting about their preservation land is that it was set aside over 100 years ago and is all original forest. It’s home to native wildlife like toucans, monkeys, and the occasional puma.
Bela Vista is also part of a larger group of 10 or so farms in the Reis family, owned by various family members. Recently, to streamline operations with larger exporters, many local farms have consolidated their operations under one umbrella, resulting in farms spread throughout the area. But most of the processing happens at Bela Vista. Thus, they have a lot of space dedicated to drying patios and fermentation techniques.
Bela Vista does a variety of micro lots and interesting fermentation styles, including:
Anaerobic: Interestingly, rather than spending a lot of resources on special equipment, they pile it up under a tarp and let it sit on the patio for 48-72 hours before starting the drying process.
Aerobic: This is achieved by piling the cherries without covering them, which allows them to ferment while maintaining sufficient oxygen.
“In the Box”: The cherries are placed in a large cement tank and allowed to ferment with access to oxygen for up to a week. The top layer of cherries develops a mold that may not look appetizing, but it adds great flavor to the cup.
Depending on the weather, they also do washed and honey-processed coffees.
Both the farm and the farmhouse are beautiful. The house is currently being refurbished, but I plan to move in when it is completed in a couple of months.
After a tour of the farm and another ride on an even bigger harvesting machine, we had lunch (more meat), followed by a cupping of their newest coffees. They will have some excellent micro lots this year, especially the “fermented in the box” lot.
Afterwards, we drove back into Varginha via the backroads, listening to 90s hits, including Natalie Imbruglia.
Wednesday morning, we visited one of the warehouses StoneX uses named Carapina, which Pacorini owns. Here we learned more about how the coffee is sorted and shipped. They have massive processing machines designed to separate the bica by screen size, density, and to remove defects.
The lab at StoneX will identify the quality needed for a specific PSS (say, a 2/3 MTGB GC) and send an order to Carapina to create it. They then take the bica and run it through the process to create it. Once created, they take a sample to the StoneX lab for evaluation and approval. If the sample passes their evaluation, it is then forwarded to the client.
Carapina and StoneX work very closely with each other to ensure the quality is correct and they are well calibrated. On the day we visited, all the lots in the warehouse being processed were StoneX lots, several of which will be shipping to StoneX Specialty this month.
In Brazil, the quality indicators can be somewhat loose depending on the supplier. But the numbers (as in 2/3 or 4/5) relate to the number of secondary defects that are allowed in a lot of coffee. There are no primary defects allowed in any quality with a number indication (grinders and low grades are allowed primary defects).
MTGB stands for Medium to Good Bean and includes screen sizes 14-16. 17/18 is the other main screen size indication and, logically, means that at least 90% of the seeds are screen size 17 and higher. Grinders are 13+, peaberry (or moka) is its separate designation and is not a specific screen size.
Lastly, there are the quality indicators: Fine Cup and Good Cup. Fine cup means that all 5 cups are without defect, while a good cup allows one-off cup. There is also one grade lower in a good cup that allows two off cups. Our Ipe Amarelo is above a fine cup and would more accurately be designated “Specialty.”
To sum up, a 2/3 MTGB FC would translate to 8 secondary defects, 14-16 screen size, and all clean cups. Ipe Amarelo 16+ (“Specialty 16+”) would be five secondary defects, 90% 16+ screen size, with a minimum score allowance (in our case, 83 points).
After we visited Carapina Pacorini and a wonderful lunch (of steak and fish) with the team there, we went to a new supplier to CDI, at Fazenda de Loge. Another “smaller” farm at 80 hectares, this is more of what we would call a traditional farm, producing primarily traditional naturals and not doing specialty or microlots. That said, the farm was extremely well-organized and immaculately kept. The owner, Francisco, is considering adding irrigation to the farm to help offset the challenges they have faced with changing climates over the past few years. Still, it isn't easy to justify the expense.
This was an off year for the Fazenda de Loge, as they’d done a lot of refurbishments last year. So, they only produced 3,000 bags, whereas next year, when the trees have recovered, they plan to produce 8,000-9,000 bags. This is common in Minas Gerais, where the cycle for many of the farms is every other year. The plants produce 80 bags per hectare in one year and then need a year to recover. With proper rotation, the farms in the region average around 30-40 bags per hectare, per year.
After our visit, we had an off night to recover. I had an omelet dinner at the hotel, which wasn’t steak! (It was ham and cheese)
Thursday was our last day of farm visits. The first part of the day was a visit to Fazenda dos Tachos, from which we purchased several Minasul micro lots. This farm was founded in 1780! They focus exclusively on specialty coffee, featuring several aerobic and anaerobic micro lots, as well as many different varieties, including Arara, Caturra, and Bourbon. Again, a smaller farm of 60 hectares, they produce about 30 bags/hectare, and all of it is great coffee. They also roast on-site and sell their roasted product to the local market (including the UFO Museum!). They gave us each a bag of coffee as gifts, including a bag of the same winning lot we purchased from Minasul!
They used to operate a restaurant on their property for the neighborhood, but closed it several years ago, using it now only for visitors and special events. It is owned by Maria Jose Bernardes (or Zezinha), her husband Adelino, and her son Tiago. Tiago is an agronomist and teaches classes on regenerative agriculture to other farmers in the region.
This is also the morning we learned of the potential 50% tariffs hitting Brazil. I was in an ideal geographical location for this news, enabling us to react quickly and expedite a few containers. Brazil is the largest coffee supplier to the US, accounting for almost as much as every other country, except Colombia, combined. So, the implications could be huge. The team in Brazil was also surprised and was thinking of alternatives, including offering more in Europe and Asia rather than the US.
While learning this news, we cupped a few pre-ships of Ipe Amarelo and an MTGB GC, as well as a selection of specialty type samples, including Rosa, Roxo, Verde, and a couple of micro lots.
In the afternoon, we visited Minasul. We have purchased a good amount of coffee from them over the years, as well as sponsoring three years of the Best of Minasul competition. It was great to meet with them, get to know the team there, and discuss how we can work together more in the future. We want to invite some roasters to judge next year’s competition, which would add credibility to the event and provide us with a better opportunity to pre-sell the winning lots. We also cupped their lineup, including their profile coffees. The Dama do Noite, which we’ve purchased before, was excellent. Extremely sweet, heavy body, lots of character.
On Friday, since we didn’t have anything planned, I spent the day at the office with the CDI team. We cupped some commercial qualities from CDI, ranging from 17/18 FC to 800 defect low grades. It’s great to learn all the qualities available, and I hope to share them with everyone reading this. Especially the low grades. Because I like to share the love.
That night we had a fantastic fish dinner at Bar Lorenzo. It’s a classic Varginha restaurant that only has five items on the menu: two different types of fish, French fries, tomato salad, and rice. It was very crowded, but it was the best meal of the trip. Highly recommended if you can get a seat.
Overall, my visit to Brazil was highly productive. I learned a lot to bring back to StoneX Specialty, got to meet the team there, and calibrate with their quality team. The farm visits were amazing, and everyone I met was wonderful. I cannot wait to return with members of our team and our customers. It would be an excellent visit for everyone.