Daterra Estate

The Cerrado region of Brazil is an enormous, sprawling savanna – the most biologically diverse on the planet. It is deep within this vast biome and upon a high plateau that Daterra Estate is located. The word Daterra means “of the earth,” and the aptly-named farm is the source of some of the world’s best Arabica coffee. Daterra Estate was founded in 1976 by the Pasqual family, and is still owned by them today.

The team at Daterra is dedicated to sustainable practices and, aside from occasional mechanical or equipment needs, the farm is entirely self-contained. The farm has a large composting area where the byproducts of coffee growing, harvesting, and processing are used to reinvest in the soil fertility, and the water used in the coffee bean-washing process is recycled. A large portion of Daterra has been set aside as permanent wetlands to help sustain local wildlife and agriculture. Recently, they were awarded a Level A certification from the Rainforest Alliance – the highest sustainability award ever given to a farm!

The partnership between Daterra Estate and Zingerman’s Coffee Company goes back more than fifteen years; Daterra was one of the first coffee estates the Coffee Company worked with.

Steve treasures his time on the lush plantation, and nurtures a collaborative relationship with the farm to ensure consistent standards for the coffee he buys.

The long-lasting friendship between Zingerman’s Coffee Company and Daterra has borne more ambitious fruit recently in a pilot program that will ultimately redefine the current definition of knowing where your coffee comes from. Our exciting project with Daterra Estate is cultivating the Pacamara varietal on a 3 acre plot which belongs to Zingerman’s Coffee Company. Steve was struck by the immense size of the Pacamara bean during his first ever origin trip to El Salvador many years ago, and he knew he had to do something special with this varietal. Pacamara has not traditionally been grown in Brazil. We may just be witnessing the birth of our very own Zingerman’s varietal!