Learn more about the objects of the medium-term exhibition “Café, patrimônio cultural do Brasil: ciência, história e arte” and understand the importance of each one to the history of coffee.
Planet Jr. Cultivator
Decade of 1950
Wood and Metal
This cultivator – with a hitch for animal traction – is an equipment used for scarifying, earthing-up, soil harrowing and, specially, to eliminate weeds. The hoes have several shapes, each one for a different purpose; the winged weeder is used to eliminate weeds, while the grub hoe is used to scarify and scratch the soil. The plow hoe is used to furrow, while the fork hoe is used to scratch the soil and perform the sowing process of the annual crops.
On 1928, an Italian immigrant family founded the Narciso Baldan & Irmãos Company on the City of Matão, State of São Paulo. That was the beginning of what eventually became Baldan Implementos Agrícolas S/A., a company that manufactures products for crops and soils. On 1952, Baldan family manufactured the first national harrow discs, the approximated date of manufacture of this cropper.
Post Hole Digger
Decade of 1950
Wood and Metal
This tool is made of two long wooden stems connected to the metal digger. It is used both in civil construction and on agriculture. It was used on farming to open holes in the ground to plant coffee seedlings. This process can be performed either with the digger or with electrical or animal-powered tractors.
This object was owned by Athayde Mendes de Oliveira, a Spanish descendent that worked as a bricklayer on Cia. Docas between late 1950 and 1984. He won this digger as a gift of a foreman after finishing a service. On 2002, Mr. Athayde gave the object to his grandson, Anderson Rios, who kept it until its donation for Museu do Café.
Rake
w/o date.
Wood and Metal
The rake is a equipment made of a wooden cable connected to a wooden base and metal arches used on agriculture and gardening to collect leaves, grass and straw and on gardens to prepare the soil for planting. It is used on coffee crops to clean the coffee tree surrounding areas or to gather the coffee beans that fell on the harvest.
This equipment was donated to Museu do Café on 2004 by Ronan Danilo Rezende.
Ladder
w/o date.
Wood
The most common harvest method on Brazil is the manual stripping, in which all beans are harvested from the branch on a manual procedure. However, the coffee trees more than 3 meters wide require the use of a ladder to reach the upper branches beans. And that’s why lower trees and a foot height pruning are preferred to facilitate the harvest process, a fact that made the ladder use become obsolete.
This equipment was acquired by purchasing on 2004 to integrate the collection of Museu do Café.
Sieve
w/o date.
Wicker
A wicker sieve used on the coffee pre-cleaning process during the harvest. This process is called screening. The beans are thrown upwards to remove branches and leaves that normally are harvested along with the coffee on the strip-picking process: as they are lighter than the beans, they disperse with the wind. This process is repeated several times by the worker until the harvested coffee is satisfactorily clean.
This equipment was acquired by Museu do Café on 2004 by purchase.
Hamper
w/o date.
Wicker
A handmade equipment similar to a basket, usually made of wicker or taquara. It is used to transport several types of products, such as fruits, vegetables, bread, poultry, fish, meat etc. Usually, it is carried on the head, shoulders or using a thin rafter. It could be used on the manual coffee harvest or to transport the dry bean to the storehouses.
This equipment was donated to Museu do Café by Ronan Danilo Rezende, commercial director of the Coffee Farmers Cooperative of Zona de Varginha, on 2004.
Squeegee
c.1966
Wood and Metal
A tool similar to a hoe, made of metal or wood, used on the coffee drying process on the farmyard. The coffee is moved on the farmyard several times on the day, spreading it, revolving it and gathering it on mounds according to the sun direction in order not to ferment the bean and to get a more homogeneous drying. The bean ripening and processing – cherry, ripe green, peeled or unpulped – generate some differences on the necessary days and on the speed of the drying process.
This equipment, manufactured by Metalúrgica Viat Ltda., was purchased to integrate the collection of Museu do Café on 2004.
Mortar and Pestle
w/o date.
Wood
A wooden equipment composed of a pestle and a mortar. The pestle and mortar was a common domestic utensil on the interior of the State of São Paulo. It had several uses, from making canjica, a white variety of corn, very typical of Brazilian cuisine, to building rammed earth houses. It was hardly used on coffee crops, as the coffee volume it could peel at one time was low and the physical effort needed was high. Thus, it was used only on small farms. After drying on the farmyard, the dry coffee was put into the container and rubbed with the pestle to separate the skin from the bean.
This equipment was acquired by Museu do Café on 2004 by purchase.
Manual peeler
w/o date.
Wood and Metal
Wooden equipment with metal wefts that accompanies a wooden grater studded with metal pins and is supported on a wooden base that is independent from the equipment itself. It was used to check the dryness level of the beans that were on the farmyard: the skin was removed by friction from a sampling of the beans in order to observe them. The result determines their staying time on the farmyard.
The object was owned by the Brazilian Coffee Institute – IBC – regulatory agency of the product. The collection of this institution, terminated on 1989, was in charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, and was partially stored on Carapicuíba Storage on Baruerí, State of São Paulo. The equipment was donated to Museu do Café on 2005.
Manual Coffee Sorting Machine
w/o date.
Wood and Metal
Manual machine built with a wooden structure and a cloth conveyor. Usually, it was used on coffee reprocessing on the manual sorting process of the impurities and the imperfect beans from the others. The coffee beans were put on a container located on the upper part of the equipment, and the worker should use the foot switch to move the conveyor and conduct the selected beans to a container under the machine, while the imperfect beans were put in another container. This manual process was almost entirely replaced by the automatic sorting machines except in a few countries such as Guatemala, in which the workforce is cheaper.
This equipment was owned by Ismael F. Coimbra Neto, father of João Carlos Coimbra, from Coração de Jesus Farm, located on the municipality of Oswaldo Cruz, State of São Paulo. He donated the equipment to Museu do Café on 2005, by means of Eduardo Carvalhaes Jr. and José Theodoro Carvalhaes.
Classification Sieves
Decade of 1910-1960
Wood and Metal
The sieves are made of wood and metal, and are used as a set to classify the coffee beans according to their sizes and shapes. The classification of the bean determines the coffee type (scaling) based on the quantity of imperfect beans and of dirt elements on a sampling and on the size of the beans measured by the sieves. The imperfections are also weighted as a whole, resulting on a percentage of the total weight of the sample.
There are rectangular sieves, used to the plain coffee beans, and circular sieves, used to the mocha type coffee beans. The measure of the sieves are made in fractions of 1/64 inches (a sieve no. 13 has 13/64 inches), varying from 8 to 20.
The set is formed by sieves that were owned by the coffee dealer Álvaro Vieira da Cunha, and were donated to Museu do Café on 2005. Part of the sieves were acquired on 1902 by his father, founder of Santa Rita Office, and the remaining from the decade of 1960 on, when the donator took over the family business.
Grading Chart
Decade of 1970
Paper
The grading of the bean determines the coffee type (scaling) based on the quantity of imperfect beans and of dirt elements on a sampling and on the size of the beans measured by the sieves. The imperfections are also weighted as a whole, resulting on a percentage of the total weight of the sample.
The grading chart has a relation that gives a score for each imperfection. The following features are considered imperfections: imperfect beans (internal imperfections) – black, burnt, green, broken, poorly shaped and drilled beans – and impurities (external imperfections) – skins, branches, stones etc. found on the sampling. The lower the coffee score at the end of the grading process, the better will be its grading. The higher grading is “type 2”.
The equipment was donated by Associação Brasileira da Indústria do Café (ABIC – Brazilian Association of the Coffee Industry) to Museu do Café on 2004.
“Ball” type Coffee roaster
2000
Metal and wood
The wrecking ball coffee roaster is a domestic utensil made of metal and wood used to roast coffee beans. It has a spherical container moved by a lever that is slowly spun while the container is supported by a base under the fire. The circular movements aim at a homogeneous roast process. It also has a second wooden stem that is used to open the container when the coffee is on its ideal roast moment, which is generally identified by the color of the smoke.
This equipment was donated to Museu do Café on 2004 by Hercílio Amaral Neto.
Coffee Grinder
Decade of 1890
Metal and wood
Domestic utensil made of metal and wood used to grind the roasted coffee. It has an opening on its spherical container in which the beans are inserted. When the lever is turned, the coffee is grinded and stocked on the squared-shape container.
On 1810, the siblings Jean Pierre II and Jean Frédéric founded Peugeot Frères, a steel casting plant in which were fabricated several types of tools, such as saws, springs, umbrella structures and pepper and coffee grinders. On 1882 they started to manufacture bicycles, and only on the end of the decade they entered the automotive brand, which is the specialty of the branch up to the present.
This model was manufactured on the decade of 1890 and was owned by Mr. Evaristo Lopes, grandfather of Bonifácio Rodrigues Hernando Filho, a Portuguese immigrant that established himself on Santos, State of São Paulo, at the beginning of the twentieth century. Bonifácio donated this equipment to Museu do Café.
Coffee filter
w/o date.
Cloth, wood and metal
The most used coffee preparation method on Brazil is the filtered coffee method, using a filter made of paper or cloth. The cloth filter is set on a metal structure fixed on a wooden base. The coffee powder is put on the coffee filter, and boiling water is added on it. While the coffee grounds remain on the cloth, the liquid itself flows to a container set on the wooden base. The cloth filter is reusable; it is highly recommended to wash it on boiling water after usage.
