| Overview Fazenda Rainha belongs to the Carvalho
Dias' family since 1890. Gabriel de Carvalho Dias, nephew of the owner
is responsible for managing the farm, which is located exactly on the
boarder with the State of Minas Gerais, and has the characteristics of
the mountainous regions of Mogiana and South Minas. Plantations are
handled manually, because the local topography does not allow any type
of mechanization.
Social and environmental aspects are considered fundamental by the
farm's management. The farm has a program to plant native species to
maintain the ecological balance. Furthermore, the employees live in
houses with complete infrastructure; there is a school for their
children and a leisure area for the families with a club and an official
soccer field. The water used in the farm is treated to avoid polluting
its water sources.
The farm is at an altitude between 1100 and 1500 meters with average
annual rainfalls between 1800 and 2000 mm, and an average temperature of
19°C - ideal conditions for coffee growing.
Fazenda Rainha continues to produce coffees of the Bourbon variety,
famous for its exceptional quality.
Coffee processing system
Coffee is picked manually on cloth, to avoid that the beans touch the
soil. As soon as possible the beans are transferred to the processing
area, always on the same day they are picked, to avoid any fermentation
risks. After the coffee is picked and arrives at the processing area it
is immediately washed, when the beans are separated according to size
and density and the dry beans (bóia beans) are separated from the rest,
and then the coffee is transferred to the terrace to dry. The other
beans are sent to the cherry pulper where only the ripe beans are
pulped, separating them from the green beans during this stage.
The cherry pulped beans are dried on a terrace until the coffee
reaches 20% humidity. At this stage the beans are transferred to the
driers for their humidity level to be reduced to 11%. Subsequently, the
coffee is transported to the warehouse - which maintains low humidity
levels and is free of odors that may affect coffee.
Concern with quality
The quality of the coffees produced at Fazenda Rainha
is the result of the great dedication and care exerted from planting the
nursery trees to harvesting and then processing the beans. The work
performed by Regina Helena Mello de Carvalho Dias and her family to
produce distinct quality cups led the coffees produced at her farm to be
one of the finalists of the Cup of Excellence Contests - 2000, 2001 and
2005 editions. Furthermore, the coffees produced in Fazenda Cachoeira,
which also belongs to the Carvalho Dias family, were classified in the
Cup of Excellence Contests of 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2005.
|