From source to sip
The story behind your next cup.
In the hills of Alto Barreiro, where Poço Fundo meets Machado in southern Minas Gerais, Sildes Caixeta walks ground his grandfather once farmed. He bought the family estate back in 1985 and now lives in the house his grandfather built. This is coffee shaped by patience and homecoming.
Barra Grande sits in Alto Barreiro, a pocket of high country straddling the municipalities of Poço Fundo and Machado in southern Minas Gerais. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, and Minas Gerais is its most celebrated growing state, known for clean, sweet, chocolate-forward cups. Caixeta is a third-generation farmer. His grandfather owned this land until the family was forced to sell when Sildes was five years old. Three decades later he returned and reclaimed it.
Read the full story
The Coffee Story
The SourceA Farm Bought Back
Barra Grande sits in Alto Barreiro, a pocket of high country straddling the municipalities of Poço Fundo and Machado in southern Minas Gerais. Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world, and Minas Gerais is its most celebrated growing state, known for clean, sweet, chocolate-forward cups. Caixeta is a third-generation farmer. His grandfather owned this land until the family was forced to sell when Sildes was five years old. Three decades later he returned and reclaimed it.
The estate rests near 1,200 meters, high enough that cooler nights slow cherry maturation and concentrate sugars in the fruit. Those elevation conditions, paired with Mundo Novo and Yellow Catuai trees, give Barra Grande its dense sweetness. Caixeta treats the land as inheritance rather than commodity, and the care shows in the cup.
The CraftThe Patience of the Sun
This is a natural coffee, meaning the whole cherry dries intact with the fruit still wrapping the bean. That fruit feeds sugars and body into the seed as it dries, building the cherry and brown sugar character that defines the natural style. You can read more about how natural and washed processing shape flavor and weight.
Caixeta refuses to rush. The cherries are raked and rotated under the sun repeatedly across the drying cycle, an unhurried rhythm that keeps the fruit drying evenly and prevents off notes. That discipline has lifted both the quality of the coffee and the livelihood of the farm. We roast it to City+, a level that protects the natural sweetness while drawing out the chocolate and caramel tones underneath.
The CupSweet and Round
The first sip lands soft and full, with milk chocolate rolling across the palate and a syrupy brown sugar sweetness underneath. As it opens, a ripe cherry note lifts the middle and keeps the cup from turning heavy. The finish is long, nutty, and gentle, with almost no acidic edge.
This is a comfortable, crowd-pleasing coffee. It holds up to milk without losing its sweetness and makes an easygoing daily cup for anyone who prefers smooth and chocolatey over bright and sharp.
