Lot DT 12 - 01/02: Macunaíma (LOT 01)

MACUNAIMA was first published in 1928 and is considered an experimental masterpiece – the author Mario de Andrade was one of the members of a vanguard dedicated to finding a true Brazilian identity in arts. The book was very celebrated because of its irreverent and, to be very honest, quite bizarre storyline: Macunaima is an anti-hero – he’s a very lazy indigenous native, dedicated to nothing but his pleasures. He somehow marries an amazon leader who gives him an important amulet before dying at their child’s birth – he proceeds to lose the gift. In a series of weird events, the amulet ends in Sao Paulo and Macunaima and his brothers travel in search of it, finding only more trouble along the way. Irreverent texts were very new to the Brazilian literature in the ‘20s – at the time, writers were heavily influenced by classic European trends and Macunaima was received with very mixed reactions. Today, it’s celebrated as a game-changer for Brazilian arts.

This crazy book inspired this crazy coffee: you’ll smell mango, orange and apricot jam with floral hints right on the dry grounds. The mango comes back strong on flavor, with also peach liqueur, blackberry, passion fruit – this coffee is very sweet, but also very bright and phosphoric.

Would you believe us if we told you this coffee has Timor in its background? Well, it does – Paraiso is a cross between Timor Hybrid and a yellow Catuai. The trees are short and give yellow cherries that make really nice coffees – besides that, the trees are resistant to the leaf rust and to a particularly dangerous type of nematode called Meloidogyne exigua.

To make Macunaima, our cherries were handpicked and only the ripest ones were fermented in an oxygen-rich environment without using water, yeast or any other additives – it’s an open, natural fermentation.

Varietal: Daterra’s Paraiso
Process: Natural Aerobic Fermentation
Screen size: 16/18
Harvesting: Handpicking
Drying: Patio
Plot: BV 40