One of Linea founder Andrew Barnetts "most popular coffee farms in Brazil is FAF (Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza). We think that FAF's concept of growing and processing its own coffee and developing a coffee initiative with neighbouring farms, creating a wide range of products, is a unique concept in Brazil, and the taste profile is complex and interesting compared to many other Brazilians that we have tried. The coffee offering at FAF is a good mix of small and medium sized coffees, separated by many different varieties from different local communities.
Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF) is a coffee farm, research center and development laboratory in Brazil owned and operated by Sylvia Marcos Croce and her son Felipe. Brazils FAF, or Fazenda ambiental forteleza, and its owner, the Croce family, are at the forefront of Brazil's organic and sustainable agriculture.
Sylvia and Marcos Croce's mission is to promote high quality, organic and sustainable coffee in Brazil, to find other farmers with the same interest and to educate them on how to do the same.
In the Mococa region of Brazil there is one of our long-standing producers and partners, Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF). Faf is a 2,000-hectare estate in the southern state of Sao Paulo that sparked the movement of Brazils CoffeeLand. Faf has a passion for offering quality products and taking sustainability seriously, and they have shown how this is in line with their own values in the roasting industry.
Silvia Barretto inherited her family's historic farm in the early 2000s and returned to a country that enjoys a reputation as an industrialized, dependent model built on an industrialized model after living through the duration of the decades-long military dictatorship in Brazil. This time Silvia got a fazenda, a farm, from her parents. For five years she supported the farm with bees, cows, milk and meat.
From the moment we arrived in Sao Paulo, our coffee buyers and FAF representatives told us that our experience would not be typical of most FAFs, but would be unique to this coffee farm. The Fazenda was founded in 1850 and has been part of the Silvia Barrettos family for generations. Ivan and Rose dos Santos grew up as a family on the coffee farm and have run their own farm since 2008.
Felipe and his parents are emblematic of a new generation of coffee farmers who embrace sustainability, quality and the mission of elevating coffee beyond its raw material status. Every year Ivan and Rose dos Santos give us a taste of their homeland, which we can only offer in the name of a single origin.
This is significant because Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, but much of it falls on the commodity-oriented market. In Brazil, labour costs are higher than for other coffee products, as much of the harvest is the result of raisin harvesting with varying degrees of ripeness. The clean, natural process coffee we tasted was at a height that was not very high, and it had great character and sweetness, but the delicate, dry process coffee was harvested in a uniform maturation phase, while the unripe coffee was sorted and dried by hand.
The beans are picked and dried before their eyes on the terraces of their houses. Bob-O-Link Coffee is the result of a network of farmers in one of the best coffee regions of Brazil, with a shared vision to produce the best coffee with sustainable farming practices that reduce the heavy footprint of humans on Earth and promote harmony between humans and nature. Coffee is produced in the Mogiana Mountains in the Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais States at altitudes of 900 to 1400 m, with the highest Arabica coffees such as Bourbon, Mundo Novo and Catuai.
In practice, as an agricultural collective Fazenda Ambiental Fortalezas, we consider the environmental, social and financial inconsistencies the specialty coffee industry is facing in general, and we hope to find solutions through our Bob-O-Link project. Bob-o-Link - Farmers are a part of the FAF - Network that raises awareness and improves the quality of coffee, protects sources, creates green water corridors to reduce the use of toxic materials, keeps trees in the shade for coffee, and creates a healthy place for the Bob-o - Link - People.
In partnership with FAF, other farms are working to grow coffee using sustainable and ecological methods. In 2005, FAF Coffee was founded by Felipe Croce, Silvia Marcoss son, an experienced international expert and judge of coffee specialties, who joined the group to found the company. Our mission is to promote total quality and to find other farmers who share the same desire to sell better coffee to the world.
In a short time we have developed a strong partnership and have been searching for unique coffees for years. FAF is located in the state of Sao Paulo, on the border with Minas Gerais, the heart of coffee production in Brazil. Linea Caffe coffees are known for their inherent sweetness, balance and accessibility.
Felipe works closely with some of the best chefs in Sao Paulo, combining high-quality coffee for the restaurants, and also providing them with other fruits from the farm. The farm has been owned since 1852 by the Barretto Croce family, making Felipe the fifth generation of the farm. The transformation into a sustainable specialty coffee farm started in 2001. One of the naturally inclined partners of the FAFs identified a prevalent weed on the farm, which was spicy for the property.
The Research Institute for Ecological Development (FIBL) in Switzerland adds that public and private support for research, development and training in organic farming falls short of funding, infrastructure and staff in conventional and biotechnological farming, all of which discourage the average farmer from deciding against his personal beliefs. We believe that by trying to find producers who are acquiescing to the idea and offer them support at the core of sustainability we are establishing that the market for organic and sustainable high-quality coffee is not only established, but there is also no doubt that an ecological, sustainable growing model benefits the environment and all of us.