April 30, 2008
When you're shopping for coffee in Brazil, make sure you look for a special edition of some of the country's best brands. Every year since 2005, the Brazilian Coffee Industry Association - ABIC - has promoted the Special Edition of the Best Coffee in Brazil, an initiative aimed at highlighting products that have excelled in all phases of coffee production.
To compete in the Special Edition, coffee industries must acquire grain that has won the ABIC National Coffee Quality Contest. In 2007, 3,500 coffee growers participated in the coffee quality tournament. Industries could purchase the winning lots during an auction in November.
Winners of this year's Special Edition bear the seal Cafés Premiados do Brasil - Safra 2007, meaning "Award-Winner Brazil Coffee – 2007 harvest" on the numerically controlled packaging of coffee that used the winning grain.
This year, the contest celebrates the Centennial of Japanese Immigration in Brazil. Japanese immigrants first came to Brazil to work on coffee farms.
Here’s the list of 2007 Winners, with their states of origin and the names of the farms where the grain they used was grown.
- Top Winners:
Café Campeão - Espírito Santo
Café Vista Linda - Espírito Santo
Astoria Real (Toko) - Minas Gerais
Café Guidalli - Santa Catarina
Grain from Fazenda Santa Angélica, a coffee farm in Taquarituba, São Paulo. The grain won top prizes in two categories and was purchased at the auction for a price about ten times the market value.
- Santés, a brand by Café Sobesa - Bahia
Baronesa Gourmet, a Café Baronesa brand – Minas Gerais
Grain from Fazenda São Paulo, in Bonito, BA
- Café Letícia - Minas Gerais
Fino Grão - Minas Gerais
Cajubá - Minas Gerais
Grain from Sítio João Altoé, in Castelo, ES
- Premiados Tiradentes Brasil, by Café Tiradentes - São Paulo
Café Caiçara Edição Especial, by Café Caiçara - São Paulo
Grain from Fazenda Natureza, in Tomarina, PR
- Café Pelé - São Paulo
Café Damasco – Paraná
Café Toko and Café Bom Dia - Minas Gerais
Grain from Fazenda Baixa Funda, in Piatã, BA
- Café da Cocari Alto Vácuo, by Cooperativa Agropecuária e Industrial – Paraná
Grain from Sítio Asami, a farm in Marialva, PR
- Café Bandeirantes, by Mitsui Alimentos - São Paulo
Grain from Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama, in São Sebastião da Grama, SP
