Brazil
Mantiqueira de Minas
Valéria de Fátima Pimentel
Sítio Oliveiras
Red Catuai
Natural
July–August
Honey, Dried Mango, Lemon-lime, Cherry
1100 meters
N/A
60 kg w/ GrainPro
SOLD OUT
Coffee producer Valéria de Fátima Pimentel began learning about coffee at a young age accompanying her parents in their work as coffee growers. At that time, production was difficult and consisted entirely of family labor as they didn’t have access to technologies or other assistance. Despite this, her parents worked hard to support Valéria and her five siblings, teaching them skills that Valéria would use on her own farm one day.
Valéria married her husband, Silvano, in 2002. He worked as a coffee producer in partnership with his brother, farming on their parents land at the time. In 2005, they purchased their own plot of land, Sítio Oliveiras, and planted coffee trees across the 8.3 hectare property. The family invested in infrastructure and equipment, such as tractors, dryers, and machines for post-harvest processing, in order to work toward producing high quality crops.
Today, Valéria works in partnership with her husband cultivating 8 hectares of Catucai and Catuai variety trees. Valéria also joined AMECAFÉ Mantiqueira in order to continue learning and developing as a coffee producer, helping her to achieve growth as a producer year after year.
This coffee was one of the top 6 entries in the Natural/Pulped Natural category of a competition held by AMECAFÉ Mantiqueira (The Association of Coffee Women Entrepreneurs in Serra da Mantiqueira) in October 2022. The association was founded in 2017 and now includes 130 producers, providing professional development and other events for women producers in the region.
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. The region is differentiated by the unique terrain and the resulting characteristics that the terroir 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.
