The Nunes family has been farming the land around the small city of Patrocínio for generations—beginning with Osmar Pereira Nunes, who raised both dairy and beef cattle. In the mid-’80s, Osmar’s son, Osmar Junior—or Juninho—was inspired by other farmers in the area and the changing global landscape and planted 10 hectares of coffee. After that, he planted another 7 hectares each year, dedicating more and more of the family farm to coffee production. More recently, Juninho and his son, Gabriel (the third generation and a trained agronomist), again saw the global market shifting and transitioned their production away from large-scale commercial farming to a more quality-focused specialty approach. Gabriel believes that coffee production is no longer centered around maximizing volume but instead on ensuring quality and sustainability. It's clear that Gabriel knows what he’s doing—scoring over 92 points and taking 1st place in the 2017 Brazil Cup of Excellence (COE) competition. We’re no strangers to the Brazil COE competition—in fact, Nolan Hirte (Proud Mary founder) served on the international jury that year and absolutely fell in love with the Nunes family’s coffee—so much so that we bought the whole lot! The Nunes family is a shining example of both the quality of coffee available in Brazil and how commercial producers can pivot to a quality-focused specialty model.