Farm Histroy

Sítio São José is located between the mountains of South Minas Gerais, in the municipality of Pedralva. During the two years it has been working with gourmet coffee it was classified for the national phase of the Cup of Excellence. Its soil is of the Latosol type, humid mountain subtropical climate, with four well defined seasons a year and at na altitude of approximately 1200 meters.

The property has been in the hands of the same family since the beginning of the 19th Century. Initially, the family planted sugar cane and produced raw brown sugar. Later, the farm's activities were expanded with the implementation of a sugar mill to produce sugar cane juice spirits.

During the 60's sugar cane was replaced by conventional coffee plantations because of the excellent characteristics of the property for that culture. From 2000 onwards, the farm adopted the best planting, harvesting and handling techniques to produce high quality specialty coffees worth of competing for the best prizes.

Furthermore, there is a constant concern with soil conservation, where techniques such as contour line planting, annual soil analyses, soil leveling, chemical fertilization, organic fertilization and clearing, always aiming at incorporating organic matter to the soil of the plantations.

Coffee processing system

Due to the rugged mountain ranges, beans are hand picked. Harvest begins selectively in mid-April, when only the ripe (cherry) beans are picked, and extends until the end of the month of September, covering three stages.

The process is the pulped natural, where the harvested coffee is washed, pulped and spread out on the terrace on that same day, remaining there until it is half-dry, when it is transferred to the driers.

After the beans are dry, they are transported to the bins, where they remain for 30 days, to homogenize the humidity of the beans.

Concern with quality

Quality is the primary purpose of the productive process adopted in the farm, with all phases monitored and supervised by agronomist Luiz Gonzaga Carneiro. Care is taken from selecting the nursery trees to preparing the soil, plantation upkeep, harvesting, terrace handling, etc.

Furthermore the farm invests in personnel training to improve plantation handling and coffee processing. All employees are aware of the importance of environmental preservation, demonstrated by the construction of septic tanks for every house of the employees, preserving an area of approximately 15 hectares of native woods remaining from the Atlantic Rain Forest, protecting all the water sources of the property and performing the selective collection of all the waste of the property.