Brazil - Das Almas #4 by Adriano Muñiz [25/26]

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter

Light roaster influence: We're keeping it all integrated. If we roast "lightest" on this one it can bring in a deceptive hint of peanut (more like "classic" Brazil), so we're pushing a smidge further - tweaking for full character and bright profile

Best rested for: 2-3 weeks

For Filter: Brew 62-64g per litre, 96°C

For Espresso: 18g in, 42-44g out, 28-32s

We're tasting:

Big & punchy aromatics - we're finding bruised strawberry, cherry syrup and grape soda. In the cup it's like cherry cola, grape jam, plum and hibiscus, intensely sweet with a huge amount of acidity for Brazil. In that distinctive Das Almas special prep style, we find an super nice + complex resinous note to the finish - reminding us of a gentle blend of clove, lavender, rosemary and lemon thyme, adding lift without dominating the cup. Unashamedly process led and funky, yet very delicious

Traceability:

The Story

Fazenda Das Almas is a 109 HA farm managed by the Muñiz family since 1965 in the Cabo Verde region of Sul de Minas, Brazil. The name translates to "Farm of the Souls," tracing back to Portuguese settlers from the Azores who believed that conducting religious ceremonies in these highlands brought them closer to departed souls. The farm sits at 950 to 1150 metres on volcanic, mineral-rich soils, with 21 protected natural springs and over 7,000 metres of ecological corridors running through the property.

Adriano Muñiz, who took over from his father José da Costa Muñiz, steered the farm towards quality enhancement, adapting to market changes and the rise of speciality coffee. He now runs the operation alongside his sons Thiago, an agronomist, and Matheus, who represented the farm at the 2025 Cup of Excellence. They invested in infrastructure and processing methods, embracing various fermentation techniques like carbonic maceration and yeast inoculation, and Adriano maintains a dedicated experimental plot where he plants roughly 20 trees of each new variety, evaluating them through post-harvest processing and sensory analysis before committing to larger scale production.

The farm grows a mixture of varieties that are well adapted to the lower elevations found in Brazil, like this lot of Rubi. Rubi MG 1192 is a Mundo Novo and Catuaí hybrid, developed collaboratively by EPAMIG, UFV, and UFLA, and better known across Brazilian coffee farming for its agronomic reliability and high yield than for cup distinction.

Its low stature and open branching make it well suited to high-density planting and mechanical harvesting, and it remains widely planted across Sul de Minas, Cerrado Mineiro, and Alta Mogiana. Under careful cultivation at elevation and with quality-focused processing, though, it is capable of producing clean, sweet speciality-grade lots.

The farm's commitment to sustainability is evident in their environmental efforts, dedicating a significant portion (37%) of the land to native preservation and implementing clean energy solutions like biogas generators and solar panels. Their community involvement extends to supporting local educational initiatives, showcasing their dedication beyond coffee production.

These efforts culminated in notable recognition, with Matheus placing 9th in the Experimental category of the Cup of Excellence Brazil 2025 with an Arara lot scoring 88.24, and Adriano securing 4th place in the 2022 Especialíssimo Award, a programme that identifies the top 50 speciality coffees across Cooxupé's 19,000+ member families through blind evaluation by Q Graders.