Brazil
Mantiqueira de Minas
Ana Maria Junqueira de Paiva and Gabriel Lelis Junqueira de Paiva
Fazenda Mombuca
Red Catuai
Natural
June-July
Delicate, Floral, Sweet, Ripe Fruit
1075 meters
N/A
60kg with liner
SOLD OUT
Sitio São José and Fazenda Mombuca are located in Bairro Jacú e Mombuca community in the city of Lambari in the Mantiqueira de Minas coffee region of Sul de Minas. Coffee producer Gabriel Lelis Junqueira de Paiva got his start working at a dairy alongside his father. In 1986 he married Ana Maria and with her had three children: Gabriel Lelis Junior, Luiz Paulo, and Kaic.
After some twists and turns in life, the family moved to Sitio São José in 1992, a property loaned to Gabriel by his father-in-law, José Genaro de Paiva, with the plan that his son-in-law would one day make the farm profitable and purchase it.
Gabriel began this challenge by raising dairy cattle and in 1994 planted his first 2,000 coffee trees of the Acaiá variety. By 2007 he had 20,000 coffee trees and was looking to expand, which led to the acquisition of Fazenda Mombuca, which was also given to him by his father in law.
Mombuca is approximately 15 hectares and Ana Maria and her children work the farm intensely. Since 2013, they have been focused on coffee quality and improving the post harvest. These efforts have been influenced by Luiz Paulo, the Q Grader in the family. Since 2017 they have been fermenting coffees to improve the final quality of the beans.
Located on the northern side of the Serra da Mantiqueira mountain range in the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais, the Mantiqueira de Minas region is a demarcated area of 25 municipalities. It is officially recognized as an Indication of Origin for its tradition and worldwide reputation of producing coffees with unique sensory profiles.
Most producers in the region are smallholders who operate family farms and the region is differentiated by the unique terrain and the terroir it leads to in the cup. Coffees from Mantiqueira de Minas reflect both the place itself and the committed work of its producers. Mantiqueira includes more than 8,200 producers, 82% of whom are smallholders, and 56,000 hectares of mountain land planted with coffee. Most harvesting is still completed manually, and this and other practices keep the regional cultural heritage of coffee farming alive while at the same time pursuing new flavors.
