But a moment on the world’s favourite drink – coffee. The beautiful green highlands of south Minas Gerais state produces 10% of the worlds coffee and they take this responsibility very seriously. Under threat for a while by the sugar cane creep (which is taking up increasing amounts of Brazilian farmland), prices have improved in recent years and coffee farmers are back on the wagon. Visiting the Super Safra coffee warehouse owned by coffee farmer Gustavo gave us insight into a thoughtful entrepreneur and how to grade and process coffee to the green bean stage. Size, colour, taste are the key tests to grading three grades of duro (hard), mole (soft) and rio (river). Each farmers delivery takes about two days to grade using state of the art infrared technology for colour grading through to the very precise taste testing involving a whole lot of slurping and spitting. Good fun! Super Safra’s owner Gustavo is also a coffee farmer and when asked which business he was involved with first, he got a familiar laugh from the group in that “he got rich first, then bought a farm”.
Anyone looking for a bit of paradise should head to Calmo do Rio Claro in the middle of this coffee region, where the stunning hilly, green landscapes and big rivers host a beautiful mosaic of agriculture alongside vibrant bush with monkeys, and a range of beautiful birds including the tiny shimmering green “beija-flor” hummingbird – or “flower-kisser”.