Brazil – Montenari Estates

Meet the farmer

The Montanari’s have angled their neat ‘hedgerows’ of coffee at 330 degrees from north as they have ascertained that this will provide the trees with the longest hours of sunlight. 5 varietals are grown across the farm to ensure that ripening and harvesting can be planned across a greater period of time to avoid bottlenecks at the processing areas and drying patios. These include Mundo Novo, Topazio, Catuai, Rubi, and Acaia. These coffees are processed separately and as such we can cup them all to find the very best to import into the UK.

A test plot on the farm allows the family to grow new and different varietals which can be studied for yield, resistance to disease and cup value. Marcello is an agricultural engineer so takes a keen interest in this area as he plans out the future of the farm. A range of varietals will of course bring about different cup profiles and the same can be said of the processing techniques that are employed too.

This coffee is mechanically harvested when the Catuai 99 plot is ready for picking with a good % of mature cherries. After this the coffee is then separated and sorted before being sent to the patios to dry for between 7 – 10 days.