Brazil
Mantiqueira de Minas
Simone Carneiro de Morais Sousa
Fazenda Santa Quitéria
Red Catuai
Natural
June–August
Milk Chocolate, Blood Orange, Dried Mango, Lemongrass
1125 meters
N/A
60 kg w/ GrainPro
SOLD OUT
Coffee producer Simone Carneiro de Morais Sousa is the fourth generation of her family to own and operate Fazenda Santa Quitéria in Cambuquira, Minas Gerais, in the Mantiqueira de Minas region of Brazil. Dating back to its founding in 1889, the farm has traditionally been managed by the patriarchs of the Carneiro family. Today, the responsibility and legacy rests with Simone and her husband, Artur Queiroz de Sousa.
Simone’s involvement in the farm and her passion for coffee has always been strong, inspired by memories of her childhood on the farm with her grandfather. From a young age she was interested in helping her parents, Dr. Edson de Morais and Maria Umbelina Carneiro de Morais, in the management of the property. In 2001, Simone took over management of the farm with her husband, eventually acquiring the shares of the property belonging to her brothers.
With Simone and Artur’s background and knowledge in coffee growing, the couple saw opportunities to improve and innovate the management practices used at Fazenda Santa Quitéria. In 2008, along with their son Gustavo Morais de Sousa, they completed a quality management program and implemented new plans and guidelines for specialty coffee production on the property. This first major change sparked a revolution in the operation of the farm, which would go on to include traceability standards and optimizations in many processes.
The family—Simone, Artur, and Gustavo—established the Santa Quitéria Cafés Especiais brand and earned their first major recognition in 2012 when they participated in the first Cup of Excellence Natural Late Harvest competition. Five samples from Fazenda Santa Quitéria were selected among the top 38 lots in the country, and three samples would go on to be finalists in the international portion of the competition.
The story of the farm took a sudden turn in 2016 with the unexpected passing of Gustavo. Since then, Simone’s daughter and her husband, Sylvia Morais de Sousa Tinoco and Carlos Fasane Tinoco, have been working to learn and assume operations at the farm alongside Simone and Artur. The passion and dedication for coffee production is carried on in this fifth generation of the family to manage Fazenda Santa Quitéria, who are already looking forward to passing the legacy to their small children.
This lot of Red Catuai coffee underwent Natural processing at Fazenda Santa Quitéria.
This coffee was one of the top 6 entries in the Natural and 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.
