Coração de Melão

Born into an agricultural family in Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil, Inácio Urban moved north to Minas Gerais in the 1980s to pursue the incredible opportunity he saw in the subregion of Cerrado Mineiro. Inácio acquired land gradually, starting with just 20 hectares of coffee, and today Fazenda Rio Brilhante is an astonishing 2,700 hectares: about 60% coffee, 20% native forest preserve, and the other 20% cotton, beans, and corn.

Today Minas Gerais is known to be a powerhouse of coffee production - responsible for around 15% of the world's coffee - but in the 1980s it was a newly emerging origin, ascending as production declined in the more southern state of Paraná (which is now too regularly prone to hard frosts). Cerrado Mineiro's coffee farms exemplify modern Brazilian production - massive tracts of land, smooth terrain, and a long, warm, and dry harvest season ideal for the production of natural and pulped natural coffees...