The property is located on an offshoot of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range, where two intact areas of the Atlantic Rain Forest and their water sources are protected. The vigorous vegetation and various wild animals are the reason the farm has many visitors, who want to see the beautiful canaries that live in it. The soil of the farm consists of purple latosol with large granitic stones, resulting in very good fertility. Altitudes vary between 900 and 1000 meters, and coffee plantations are on the higher parts of the farm.

When Mrs. Oliveira’s husband died, she and her children decided to work together, and did not divide the property, establishing a partnership system where there are no employees, but 50/50 tenant farmers, each of whom work in his coffee-planting field. To diversify the production, the family has another farm where they plant bananas of the “Prata” variety, and produce milk and fish, under the same partnership system.

Coffee processing system

Coffee is picked manually, selecting the ripe fruit. After the coffee is picked, it is immediately transported to the main house, where they are washed and pulped. Coffee is dried on an open patio, where the beans are spread in thin layers and raked regularly many times a day; in case of rainy weather, the beans are dried in a rotary drier, at temperatures below 40º C. When they reach a humidity level between 11 and 12%, the coffee is bagged and sampled for sensorial analyses, and then separated by lots according to the results obtained from the analyses.

For this edition of the Brazil Cup of Excellence Competition, the best lot produced in the farm, according to the professional cupper that sampled the coffees, was sent to the competition.

Concern with quality

One of the owner’s sons is an agronomist and has attended several courses on specialty coffees production. He is the person in charge of providing technical recommendations for coffee growing, based on the soil and foliar analyses he makes, under pest and disease strict controls, with integrated handling. No pesticides are used, not even glyphosate, and only Viça Café is regularly sprayed.

Coffee processing is also made under strict control, and begins way before harvesting, by cleaning the terraces, bins, driers, washers and cherry coffee pulper.