Brazil
Matas de Minas
Smallholder Producers
Smallholder Farms
Red Catuai, Yellow Catuai, Catucai, Arara
Natural
May–August
Milk Chocolate, Almond Butter, Dried Fig
950 meters
N/A
59 kg w/ GrainPro
SOLD OUT
As the largest coffee producer and exporter in the world, Brazil is rich in biodiversity, water sources, and forests. These important resources are finite however, and their preservation is crucial to many people and industries, including coffee. With this in mind, Atlantica Coffee—our sister company in Grupo Montesanto Tavares—developed the Mutua Sustainability Project. This project includes Mutua Matas e Nascentes Project, in which Atlantica partners with 20 rural producers in the Matas de Minas region each year to help develop their operation with more sustainable practices and infrastructure in order to preserve important natural resources.
Mutua contributes to six United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, achieving this through their work to recover forests and springs, preserve legal reserves, and treat domestic sewage. The project includes three stages, beginning with an initial visit where Atlantica diagnoses needs to achieve these goals, followed by oversight to ensure success, and finally the opportunity to commercialize their coffee as part of the Mutua Project if the producer chooses. All of this is done at no financial expense to the producer, with Atlantica covering the costs to make the necessary updates to each farm they work with. If producers choose to sell their coffee as part of the Mutua Project, they receive a premium of $3 per 59 kg bag of green coffee sold.
You can learn more about Mutua Matas e Nascentes Project at AtlanticaCoffee.com
The Matas de Minas coffee region is in the southeastern part of the Minas Gerais state, just over the border from Espirito Santo, with Alto Caparaó as its most recognized municipality. The region has become better known for its specialty coffees after many producers began to transition to Pulped Natural processing.
With a distinct topography featuring rugged mountain terrains and large variations in elevation (between 400 and 1100 meters above sea level), Matas de Minas makes a perfect region for growing specialty coffees. Because of its specific features, special care is taken in growing all the crops of the region. Coffee is harvested manually to select for only the most mature beans, the plants are planted with a wider spacing and to receive more sunlight, only treated water is used for washing and pulping the beans, and drying is done meticulously and carefully. Together, these factors favor the production of the highest quality coffees, full-bodied and with great nuances in both aroma and flavors.
