This peaberry lot comes from Mió’s farm in Monte Santo de Minas, Brazil. Due to climate challenges during the 2024 harvest, the lot was processed using a pioneering fermentation protocol developed by Mió’s Chief Operating Officer, Professor Lucas Louzada. The result is a boozy, fruit-forward cup with notes of cherry and dark fruits.
Mió is a vertically integrated coffee company owned and run by the Pellicer family, who also handle the export, import, and storage of their coffee. Their farm spans approximately 1,976 hectares at 900-1,000 MASL, with 400 hectares planted with a range of Arabica cultivars. The rest of the land is dedicated to native forest reserves, eucalyptus and state-of-the-art milling and processing infrastructure.
In early 2024, Professor Lucas Louzada — former Head of Coffee Design at the Institute of Espírito Santo — joined the Mió team. His arrival coincided with a particularly challenging harvest. That year, an El Niño weather pattern brought prolonged high temperatures, leading to 70% of Mió’s harvest comprising overripe cherries — typically unsuitable for high-quality cup profiles due to reduced sugar content. Rather than lose the crop, Professor Louzada introduced an innovative solution: the cherries were placed in small, covered mounds and inoculated with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a starter yeast, to initiate a 72-hour controlled fermentation. This process helped generate flavour precursors that we then carefully developed through roasting.
We had the chance to witness this innovation firsthand when we visited Mió in September 2024. During our time on the farm, we learned more about Professor Louzada’s research into post-harvest processing as a tool to improve quality and build resilience to climate change. We cupped a range of experimental lots and were especially impressed by the clarity and complexity of those processed using his new protocols — including this peaberry lot.
The cherries were handpicked by Mió’s dedicated harvest team. Following inoculation with yeast and 72 hours of fermentation, the coffee was dried for 10 days on concrete patios, then finished in a rotating mechanical dryer for two days. Once dried, the coffee underwent a series of sorting steps: density separation to remove low-mass beans, mechanical screen grading to isolate peaberries, and optical electronic sorting to remove beans with primary and secondary defects. After final quality control, the lot was packed and shipped to the UK, arriving in early 2025.
This is our second year working with Mió. We first met co-owner Ana Luiza Pellicer in London in June 2024. Inspired by her vision and commitment to sustainable specialty coffee, we travelled to Brazil later that year to spend time on the farm and learn more about their work — including how they are adapting their practices in response to climate change. We’re proud to continue this relationship and excited to share the results of their latest innovation.
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