Farm info

Fazenda Fortaleza is located in the Mantiqueira de Minas growing region of Brazil in the city of São Gonçalo Sapucai, Minas Gerais. The farm is operated by Grasiela Maris de Souza Borges and her husband, Djalma Borges Junior, who inherited the farm in 1999.

Grasiela currently lives on the 12 hectare Fazenda Fortaleza with her husband and three children. The family has worked to renovate their crops, adapt new farm management techniques, and keep sustainability in mind as they cultivate coffee across 11 of the farm’s 12 hectares. Today, Grasiela and Djalma have focused their efforts entirely on specialty coffee production, executing post-harvest processing with a commitment to quality.

This lot of Yellow Catuai coffee underwent Natural processing. Catuai was made by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) of Sao Paulo State in Campinas, Brazil by crossing Mundo Novo and Caturra varieties. Catuai coffees are cultivated widely across Brazil, and are known for their high productivity potential.

Region

Mantiqueira de Minas

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.