Overview

Sitio Monte Verde is located at an altitude of 1,200 meters, in the Mantiqueira Mountain Range region, with a rough topography and favorable climate for coffee plantations, with average annual rainfalls of 1,800 mm and average temperature of 18º C.

Helcio Carneiro cultivates coffee sustainably, always having in mind environmental preservation. The farm has reserves to preserve the native forest that shelters large vegetal species and many wild animals. Mr. Carneiro Pinto Junior is a member of APROCAM, an association that gives priority to the production and commercialization of specialty coffees, and a member of COCARIVE (www.cocarive.com.br).

Coffee processing system

Harvesting is selective and performed while the beans are ripe. It is done manually on cloth, therefore avoiding the contact of the beans with the soil. On the same day that the beans are picked, the coffee is placed in bags and transported to the processing area. Coffee processing is made in a partnership with the Sertão Group, where the cherry coffee is sent right after it is picked. In the Group's farms, the coffee is washed, pulped and dried on the terrace and in driers. Immediately after it arrives at the processing center, the coffee is washed, an operation that also separates the dry beans, and subsequently it goes through the cherry pulper that besides pulping the cherry beans, separates them from the green beans. This separation allows preparing different beans in different ways. The pulped cherry coffee is transferred to be dried on a concrete terrace and - if required - it is placed in a drier in the final drying stage, for it to reach its ideal humidity point. After the coffee is dried it is placed in wooden bins for a period of at least 30 days, to rest and to obtain homogeneity of the beans. After the beans are removed from the bins, they are separated in lots, and they are ready to be processed and transported to be stored at COCARIVE's warehouses.

Concern with quality

Since the beginning of its coffee production, SITIO VERDE counts with the monitoring and guidance of Pró-Café agronomists, of the City of Varginha, State of Minas Gerais. The constant search to improve the quality of Sitio Verde's specialty coffees has been Mr. Helcio Carneiro Pinto Junior's highest priority.