Our newest Brazil coffee is grown on the hilly highlands around Rio de Janeiro.

Photos provided by São João Estate.

São João is a historic estate, founded in 1853. The main building is maintained as a historic site.

A single hilltop and valley — just 172 acres — is the estate's coffee-growing area. The rest of the estate is preserved as forest, and replanted with native plant species at a rate of 2000 trees per year.

The coffee trees bloom after the rainy season. Hundreds of thousands of white flowers cover the mountainside.

After the flowers come the coffee cherries, unripe and green.

Some of the cherries ripen to red ...

... and some to yellow, depending on the varietal. These Yellow Bourbon beans make up just a small part of this small harvest.

The hilltop has a view of the Serro do Monte das Flores (Flower Hill range).

It's a tiny farm — just 24 employees on the estate. They hand-pick the coffee cherries to get only the ripe ones.

This year's Yellow Bourbon beans all went to Gimme, for our Brazil São João.

... and the sun sets over the mountains.