Maria Gabriela Baracat Sanchez
Maria Gabriela Baracat Sanchez is a fourth generation coffee producer. She recently took over the running of Fazenda Dois Irmãos completely from her father, Evandro, but has been working here since 2001, when she graduated as an agronomist. She has four brothers, but bucked the trend by taking over her father’s business as a woman. Her approach has had a huge effect on the coffee the farm produces, and the way in which it is produced.
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A new approach to quality
The farm previously produced only commercial grade coffees. As Gabriela’s influence began to increase, she researched the possibility of producing higher grade coffees, and encouraged her father to experiment. In 2016, the farm converted to 100% speciality coffees, and won the regional ‘Best of Cerrado’ the next year. Dois Irmãos also won ‘Best of Brazil’ in 2020.
The quality potential of the land here is immense, Evandro and Gabriela’s uncle Helio spent many years searching for the perfect spot to start their project, the two brothers or ‘Dois Irmãos’. Their land near Coromandel in the Cerrado Mineiro region has slowly expanded since starting in the late 80’s, and now Gabriela watches over 402 hectares of land. Maria’s approach to quality, experimenting with drying, with soil health, and with new varietals. The 68 varietals in the Dois Irmãos garden are constantly monitored, trying to find the best varietal to use when refreshing each plot.
Regenerative agriculture
Gabriela has also pushed the farm in a modern direction in the field. Aiming to reduce the greenhouse gas footprint of Dois Irmãos, Gabriela engaged Regenagri, a British certification agency that analyze regenerative agriculture and perform in depth greenhouse gas accounting of agricultural activities. They have assisted Gabriela in several areas of sustainable development, including using rainwater harvesting to irrigate her fields, maintaining the best possible combination of plants alongside her coffee in order to sequester carbon in the soil, calculating emissions from mechanical driers and fertilizers and proposing reduction strategies. Each area of operations was finely tuned, and Gabriela was very proud to become only the second coffee farm to gain Regenagri’s Carbon Neutral certification in 2022.
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This lot is from Gabriela’s stock of the Catuai varietal, processed as a natural. This provides the heavy and sweet chocolate and hazelnut flavours we so appreciate in the Cerrado Mineiro region, lifted by a sweet stewed red apple finish.
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