Fazenda Bela Vista
Despite its large size, Bela Vista Farm is still a family farm. It is run by siblings Isabel and Toni Reis. Isabela’s son, Otávio Reis, is the fourth generation to dedicate his life to coffee. It is thanks to him and with him that we have established our collaboration. Otávio represents the family business at home and abroad. We met him, for example, at the WOC in Milan. Otávio is always looking for new ways to develop the family business.
COUNTRY
Brazil
LOCATION
Nepomuceno, Sul de Minas, Minas Gerais
FARM
Fazenda Bela Vista
ALTITUDE
1050 m
SIZE OF THE FARM
1000 ha
COFFEE VARIETIES
Yellow Bourbon, Yellow Catuaí, Topázio, Rubi, Arara, Yellow Catucaí
ABOUT THE FARM
The Fazenda Bela Vista farm was founded 110 years ago by the Lima Reis family, who still own the farm today. It is the largest farm we have decided to partner with as Chicas Industry. The farm is huge, with its 1,000 hectares it is something almost unimaginable for us and our conditions and also incomparable to small farms in Colombia and other countries. Nevertheless, the farm management prides itself not only on environmental but also on social requirements, which they strictly observe. The whole family is working to ensure that future generations can continue to farm and preserve the tradition of the place where they were born and raised.
“We always grow our choice coffee with sustainability in mind.”
The farm is located in the Sul de Minas region, in the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais, in the town of Nepomuceno. Several varieties of coffee are grown here, such as Yellow Bourbon, Yellow Catuaí, Topázio, Rubi, Arara, Yellow Catucaí.
ABOUT THE PROCESSES
At the Fazenda Bela Vista farm, several processes are carried out to process the coffee beans. Otávio explained that the coffee is processed on the farm as natural, fermented natural, traditional pulped natural, fully washed and more.
Red Catuaí - natural, anaerobic fermentation
This lot is of the Red Catuaí variety. It is a blend of two types of processing – 40 % is natural coffee and 60 % of the lot has undergone anaerobic fermentation. For the natural part of the lot, the coffee was dried for 7 days on concrete drying trays. The other 60 % of the anaerobically fermented coffee went through the following process: the coffee was first sealed in bags and left in the shade for 48 hours to go through the anaerobic fermentation process. It was then dried for 3 days on concrete yards. Both coffees were dried for a further 3 days in mechanical drying boxes and finally for 15 days in rotary dryers to complete and stabilize the process.
