This is a story of persistence and perfectionism. Of sensitivity and passion. It's not about what we want to achieve, but about what we dream of sharing: an extraordinary coffee, produced in the purest way possible, respecting nature's cycles. A coffee made by professionals passionate about their craft, who live off the land, in the mountains of Southern Minas Gerais and Mogiana Paulista, in a privileged terroir with volcanic soil.
In 2023, this story yielded coffees that achieved 1st place in two of the most important competitions in Brazil and the world: the CUP OF EXCELLENCE and AROMA BSCA.
Two different varieties, Geisha and Arara, both 1st place winners: Geisha was the champion variety of the Cup Of Excellence, with 91.38 points. And Arara, champion of AROMA BSCA, with 90.96 points.
Geisha, Orfeu's victorious persistence.
Geisha is one of the rarest and most admired varieties in the world. Native to Ethiopia, it is a delicacy, as such. For us, a true success, as this is a delicate coffee that can encounter great obstacles in the Brazilian terroir. But the persistence of the producers on our farm spoke louder. They accepted the challenge and triumphed. Orfeu's Geisha was the winning bean of the Cup Of Excellence 2023, the most important competition in the world, the "Oscar" of coffees. An exotic 1st place, of high complexity, described in distinct ways by connoisseurs. Among aromas of honey and mango, apricot and passion fruit, caramel and jasmine, Orfeu's Geisha surprises with its velvety body and mysterious floral and buttery aspects.
Arara, surprising sensory complexity.
Arara is a relatively new coffee variety. Of Brazilian origin, it was developed to adapt perfectly to our country's terroir. In Orfeu's lands and in the hands of our producers and specialists, Arara gained new attributes. With brilliant acidity, balancing sensory aspects such as the velvety sweetness of brown sugar and molasses with the intense freshness of lemon and mint, the champion coffee of the Aroma BSCA 2023 competition was described by tasters as a distinct coffee, with intense sweetness and a pleasant and striking finish.. Produced traditionally to achieve perfect flavors, this microlot of Arara underwent sun drying on the farm's patio, without the use of machines. The pulped natural process, chosen by our Farm's specialists, along with the rare volcanic soil terroir, also paved the way for admirable sensory complexity, which granted this coffee victory in Aroma 2023.
Thanks to this story, 2023 was a great year for Orfeu.
However, the quantity of coffee, of each of these two microlots, is not that large. In the case of Geisha, most of the beans were purchased at auction, as per the competition's rules, where it achieved the highest bid in the entire history of the Cup Of Excellence. Therefore, the bottles are very few and numbered, both for Geisha and Arara. Only 200 of each variety, which are being offered in pairs to a few connoisseurs.
When our coffees are winners in such important awards, when they receive the highest bid in auction history, and when they are so rare and extraordinary that they need to be sold in numbered bottles, for us, all of this, with all its glamour, means only one very simple thing - simple as the cold mornings on the farm, as the first ray of sun on the coffee plantations, simple as the fresh aroma of rain-soaked earth: that we are on the right path.