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To continue the Junqueira family's tradition, started by their mother, Mariana de Carvalho Junqueira, owner of Rancho São Benedito, the Junqueira children acquired Sítio Bela Vista in 1997. The properties use common areas to process beans, reducing water and power consumption. The plots of land were divided by mutual agreement, and during that same year they started planting selected coffee nursery trees.
Located in a mountainous region, at the skirts of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range, it has the ideal climatic conditions for coffee production. At an altitude of 1,300 meters, plantations were developed using modern techniques and with selected seeds and nursery trees. With fertile lands and forest reserves, there is a constant concern in preserving water sources and the native forest, with large vegetal species and wild animals.
Coffee processing system
Coffee is picked selectively and manually, because of the topography, with derriça [enfolding a coffee tree branch with the hands and sliding them where the beans are] on cloth for the beans not to touch the soil. Subsequently, they are transported to the processing area, to be washed, pulped and dried.
The beans are carefully spread on concrete terraces to dry, and not to lose body and cup qualities. The drying process is slow and homogeneous, made under the sun. When the coffee reaches its ideal humidity, beans are stored in covered wooden bins, where they will rest for 30 days.
After the rest period, the lots are processed, bagged and stored at Cooperativa COCARIVE, in Carmo de Minas, where the final coffee classification is made, according to approved standards.
Concern with quality
Plantations are managed respecting the environment, in order to leave to the future generations an environmental legacy equal or better than today's. Quality investments begin at the planting phase, when the best nursery trees and the best land to plant them are chosen to produce rich, thick and soft-sweet specialty coffees.
Carvalho Junqueira's goal is to constantly improve the quality of Sítio Bela Vista coffees, by taking part in meetings, lectures, and visiting other properties to learn more about new technologies to improve the quality of their coffees.
Partnerships and associations
Márcio Heleno de Carvalho Junqueira is a member of Specialty Coffee Land, an association of approximately 40 medium-sized farms located in the mountainous areas of Southern Minas Gerais and in the western part of the Cerrado in the State of Bahia.
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