Bom Jesus

Ol’ reliable, the coffee that has been with us as long as Sam and has grown alongside commonfolk for a decade now. Bom Jesus is a beautiful example of Brazilian natural processed coffee, a traditional method that maximises efficiency, yield and quality in the specific Brazilian conditions. The topography in Brazil is both fantastic, but also limits coffee production. Gigantic plateaus that sit around 1100 MASL, meaning flat terrain that allow for mechanical intervention speeding up harvest time and requiring less human power. However, at low elevation the coffee is limited in how much acidity and complexity can be imparted without the low oxygen conditions we see from higher grown coffee. Mountainside grown coffee also slowly ripens from the lowest elevation giving producers time to chase the cherry as it slowly ripens all the way to the summit. The plateaus only vary a few hundred metres so all of the coffee ripens within a few weeks, meaning some coffee must be prioritised over others. This results in some cherries beginning to dry on the tree, therefore it is lucky that Brazil is very dry so the chance of mould is low and the coffee doesn't lose too much quality. This can still be processed and assessed to see how it tastes and what it can be used for. Because it is such a dry environment, the only water used in processing is the initial float where the coffee is sorted for density imperfections, the rejected coffee is collected and processed separately, given the best chance to find a home in the various qualities that Bom Jesus exports. Each lot is isolated and processed individually, first mechanically dried, then spread on the large concrete patios while a sample is taken to be assessed and allocated to the many tiers, a regional select, blend friendly option, slowly increasing in quality until landing at the crowning jewel, Bom Jesus. An egalitarian approach means it is not uncommon for a coffee to leap a few tiers, a tree dried lot might fluke it and everything aligns and it will be allocated to the top lot. These exportable lots are humongous silos where tiny day lots are blended into the final product we receive. Sharing an ethos of reducing waste and finding use for all quality levels is the most sustainable thing we can do in specialty coffee, the nose to tail approach finds value and appreciation in coffee otherwise discarded, and we can also celebrate the pinnacle of production with Bom Jesus. Highlighting this, Bom Jesus was the winner of the most sustainable coffee farm in the state of São Paulo, also placing 3rd in the nation for their dedication to excellence and environmental responsibility and the pursuit of producing coffee sustainably. Brothers Gabriel and Lucas are the 6th generation to become custodians of Bom Jesus and its 4,500,000 trees. A focus on community, quality and innovation is driving the brothers to be leaders of the Brazilian coffee industry, aligning perfectly with Commonfolk and our values.