Brazil IPANEMA Premier CRU AURA MAGNA 

Natural  (Dry) Anaerobic 50 hr Fermentation  Processed Yellow Bourbon 

Awards: Cup of Excellence 2018

Ipanema Gourmet has been producing coffee since the 1870s . Their approach to coffee is innovative and creative.
Beginning in 2018, Ipanema began their ‘Premier Cru’ range: a selection of very small batch, handcrafted lots from the highest altitudes of the Estate’s oldest farm,      Rio Verde

This range of Premier Cru coffees is
packed in cutting edge nitrogen-flushed vacuum-packed 20kg cartons. The method of nitrogen flushing,
common with roasted coffee, stabilises the product by removing all traces of oxygen. Taking such care
with green coffee is practically unheard of, even in specialty.

The method speaks to the exceptional quality of these lots, which push the boundaries of what specialty coffee in Brazil can offer.
Rio Verde is a large farm of 1,566 hectares. Much of the farm lies between 700 and 1,000 metres above
sea level. However, just over 260 hectares of the farm rise above 1,000 metres. This part of the farm, which
rides several peaks, is separated into 32 ‘glebes’ (plots), all of which have different altitudes and sun faces,
soil composition and a single varietal each (A=Acacia; B=Yellow Bourbon; C=Yellow Catuai). It is from
these ‘glebes’ (ranging from .65 to 20.13 hectares in size) that the Premier Cru range is carefully harvested.
The project began development in 2014, with 2018 marking the first harvest marketed under the Premier
Cru name.
Every year a new collection will be released with a unique ‘brand’ name. 2019 brought the Aura Matina
(Morning Aura) collection, 2020 named Anima Verde, and this year (2021) deemed the Aura Magna.
Every micro lot is categorised into one of the three edition groups, revealing the complexity of the taste
and its rarity. Ipanema’s coffee specialist team scores the lots into Black, Gold and Blue Edition grades
(similar to whiskey). The coffee’s final name reflects the year’s ‘brand’, the ‘glebe’ from which it was
harvested, and the dominant cupping note identified by the quality control team.

Aura Magna B67  Microlot

All of these special coffees are selectively hand-harvested and processed using one of five processing
methods, selected on a lot-by-lot basis, and based on a variety of factors and designed to highlight the
maximum quality of the cherries.

The coffee was selectively
hand-harvested and then processed using the Natural method. After harvest, the cherries were fermented for 50hr dried on
conventional patios for 31 hours and in vertical dryers for an additional 109 hours.
Development of Premier Cru:
2014: HARVEST
Ipanema began testing several different harvest methods, such as mechanical, manual, and selective
hand picking. Each was tested to evaluate the impact on the cup quality. Selective hand picking yielded
the best results across the board.
2015: VARIETIES AND MATURATION CURVE
Ipanema harvested all glebes of the farm, every single week, picking only the ripest cherry beans and
tasting them to identify what would be the best harvest moment for each location.
Each coffee glebe, according to its location, altitude, sun face, rainfall regime and variety, presents an
optimum maturation curve that guarantees high-quality scores.
Findings were that coffee trees above 1,000 meters of altitude consistently presented the best quality
scores and that the optimal harvest period lasts for approximately 20 days.
2016: DRYING METHODS
Throughout 2016 crop, Ipanema developed hundreds of tests over months to evaluate the best drying
methods to ensure higher quality scores.
Several techniques and methods of natural sun drying were tested. To do so, 2,000 square meters of
suspended terraces (known as raised beds) were built as well as a covered patio of 800 square meters. The
test also used a 3,000 square meters patio made of concrete.
Two new models of mechanical dryers were tested: a horizontal dryer with a capacity of 7,000 litres and a
vertical dryer with three layers, each one with the capacity of 5,000 litres.

2017: REFINEMENT
During the 2017 crop, Ipanema dedicated its efforts to refining and validating the methodology of harvest
and processing to be implemented from 2018 onwards.
The cupping results of more than 180 different micro-lot samples were analysed by the Estate’s team of                  Q -Graders and a group of coffee specialists.

2018: FIRST HARVEST

Country: Brazil

Region : Sul de Minas, Minas Gerais

Farm: Fazenda Rio Verde

Variety: Yellow Bourbon