Lot DT 01 - 01/02: Bacamarte (LOT 01)

Simao BACAMARTE is the main character of Machado de Assis’s satiric novel The Alienist (O Alienista). He is a well-respected psychiatrist returning to his hometown after a long time in Europe and, searching for peer recognition, opens an asylum named The Green House. Bacamarte’s initial intention is to treat mentally ill citizens, but things start to get messy when his diagnostics become way too strict. Feeling sad over an unsuccessful business? Welcome to the Green House. Had a bad night of sleep? A clear sign of mental disease. He locks up most of the citizens, who revolt against him and his methods. Bacamarte eventually realizes that he’s probably the most unstable one and discharges all patients, exiling himself at the Green House until his death. This story inspired us to create this unusual umami cup with lemongrass and seaweed aroma, flavors of stone fruits, black tea, lemon, and orange. This coffee may be a little crazy, but who isn’t?

Original from the South of Ethiopia, the first Gesha seeds arrived in the Americas through Panama in the ’60s. The Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC) received the varietal for study and added it to their genetic bank to assess Gesha’s performance under the Brazilian climate. To fully understand the adored Gesha, IAC cultivated it both in their lab and on select research partner farms: this is how Gesha arrived in Daterra. We have been studying this varietal since 2014 and only very recently it became commercially available.

We handpicked the Daterra Gesha cherries and, at our microlot processing station, we pulped them using no water to retain all the mucilage. The beans, still coated by the thick mucilage, were then placed on Raised Beds for about 20 days. As we do with all microlots, we finished the drying on a gas-fueled drum drier that allows a very precise and fine-tuned drying.

Varietal: Daterra’s Gesha
Process: Honey
Screen size: 16/18
Harvesting: Handpicking
Drying: Raised Beds
Plot: BV 40