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Single Origin Coffee

Brazil - Rafael Vinhal Tropical Fruit

Brazil - Rafael Vinhal Tropical Fruit

$21.00
$21.00
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Our summer Brazil micro lot series concludes with the final of 3 releases from Brazil Cup of Excellence winner, Rafael Vinhal.  Tropical Fruit, as Rafael calls this lot, is a double fermented natural process Catuai, features notes of - you guessed it - tropical fruits, melon, chocolate and citrus.

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  • Producer / Origin

    Rafael Vinhal
    Cerrado Mineiro, Minas Gerais, Brazil

  • Elevation

    960-1040 meters above sea level

  • Cultivar

    Catucaí

  • Processing

    Natural / Dry

  • Tasting Notes

    Tropical Fruits, Melon, Chocolate, Citrus

  • Roast Level

    Light

Overview & Cup Profile

If you've followed along this summer, we've been sharing three incredibly unique micro lots from our Brazilian producing partner, Rafael Vinhal, each with its own distinct flavor profile and processing method. As we've explored Vinhal's unique coffee processing, we began with an experimental washed lot, followed by an experimental honey lot, and now we complete our tour of processing methods with an experimental natural processed lot.

Rafael calls this coffee “Tropical Fruit” because of the plentitude of tropical fruit notes this coffee beholds as it cools. However, we find this coffee to have much more dimension than just a fruit bomb. The initial sip showcases discernible citrus-like acidity before quickly softening into a silky body dominated by chocolate notes. As the coffee cools, the tropical fruits emerge, while the finish is nutty and delicious. As with all of Rafael’s experimental micro lots, this coffee is surprisingly both unique and easy drinking!

Despite climate-related challenges, the next harvest in Brazil is already quite underway. We recently spoke with Rafael about the coffees he's working on this year and we're excited to share the next round of Rafael's coffees again in 2025.

Meet the Producer

Rafael Vinhal is a third generation coffee farmer, whose family began working in coffee in 1976. In 2005, Rafael joined the family business, intent on modernizing the operations and focusing on improving the quality of the crop through innovation. To start, he worked to get the farm more environmentally sustainable by pursuing Rainforest Alliance certification, as well as 4C certification (an international coffee-specific sustainability standard).

Rafael soon learned that elevating the cupping scores of his coffee would require more than improving the farming techniques, but also employing advanced processing techniques to extract the very best from his family’s coffee. And so he began a journey of processing innovation now two decades in the making.

Rafael's innovation has earned him a worldwide following of discerning roasters as well as numerous accolades and awards such as placing third in Brazil's 2022 Cup of Excellence competition, where his natural processed Catucai was given a score of 90.5 and selected as the 3rd best coffee in the country that season.

Processing Alchemy

Coffee processing, the method(s) used to isolate coffee seeds (bean) from the surrounding fruit, is among the most important steps in the journey from the farm to your cup. Through years of experimentation and meticulous data logging, Rafael has taken processing to the next level . His unique approach to combining traditional and innovative processing techniques has led to the development of truly unique flavor profiles, each of which is achieved by unlocking the inherent flavors in the coffee with different fermentation times and techniques.

Tropical Fruit, comprised of the arabica cultivar Catucaí, is best described as a double-fermented natural process coffee. After mechanical harvesting and sorting for ripeness by floating the cherries in water, the coffee is fermented in whole cherry in a traditional aerobic fermentation for undergo a traditional sun-dried fermentation for 44 hours. In order to stop the fermentation at a specific time, the coffee is rapidly cooled with cold water, a technique known as thermal shock.

The second stage of fermentation also takes place in the whole cherry, this time anaerobically (in an oxygen-deprived environment) for precisely 129 hours. Again the cherries are treated with a thermal shock to arrest the fermentation.

Lastly, the cherries are spread out to dry in the sun on traditional African beds for 24 days, after which they are de-pulped, milled, sorted, and bagged for export.

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