Mococa, São Paulo
Northern São Paulo, in the Mogiana belt. Flatter and lower than most specialty origins, and built for natural processing because of it.
- Country
- Brazil
- Typical elevation
- 800 to 1,100 masl
- Harvest
- May to September
Mococa sits in northern São Paulo state, in the stretch Brazilians call the Mogiana, named for the old Mogiana railway that moved coffee out of here back when coffee was what São Paulo did.
By the standards of Colombian or Ethiopian coffee this is low ground, mostly 800 to 1,100 metres, on rolling hills rather than mountainside. That changes what's possible. Lower and flatter means mechanical harvest is an option on mature trees, and it means the dry season lines up cleanly with picking.
That dry harvest window is why the region runs on natural processing. You can leave whole cherry on a patio here in July and reasonably expect it to dry rather than rot, which isn't true in most of the countries we buy from.
What you get is a different kind of coffee rather than a lesser one. Lower-grown Brazilian naturals carry body, chocolate and nut instead of the acid structure a high-grown washed coffee brings. They're the backbone of most espresso blends on earth for exactly that reason.
By the standards of Colombian or Ethiopian coffee this is low ground, mostly 800 to 1,100 metres, on rolling hills rather than mountainside. That changes what's possible. Lower and flatter means mechanical harvest is an option on mature trees, and it means the dry season lines up cleanly with picking.
That dry harvest window is why the region runs on natural processing. You can leave whole cherry on a patio here in July and reasonably expect it to dry rather than rot, which isn't true in most of the countries we buy from.
What you get is a different kind of coffee rather than a lesser one. Lower-grown Brazilian naturals carry body, chocolate and nut instead of the acid structure a high-grown washed coffee brings. They're the backbone of most espresso blends on earth for exactly that reason.
