Women in Coffee

The Women In Coffee project started in 2019 when sisters Danielle and Priscila Fonseca began to combine women producers that were focused on producing specialty coffee but sometimes didn’t have enough volume to commercialize on their own.

They started experimenting with flavor profiles and post harvesting that would allow them to have a fruity blend but with nice chocolate sweetness, a good base but with exciting flavors.

They also noticed that many times the women are the ones that specialize in taking care of the specialty production of the farm, so they wanted to highlight that as well.

Now each year the Women in Coffee blend highlights different producers, and different combinations of regions and flavors.

Contributing to this lot are Viviane Garcia, Clara Milagres, Fabiola Carvalho and Dalyse Castanheira. 

FABIOLA CARVALHO

Since she was a child, Fabiola had been accompanying her father, a renowned coffee researcher from Epamig and Embrapa, two organizations dedicated to the study of Brazilian coffee, to coffee farms and research presentations. With her husband, they eventually decided to purchase their own farm and start planting coffee, following the methods her father had taught her over the years. With the crops now in production, Fabiola applies all the knowledge she has acquired and successfully produces exceptional specialty coffees. Growing up in a family of coffee enthusiasts, Fabiola strives to enhance her skills every day and fully devotes herself to her passion for coffee cultivation.

DALYSE CASTANHEIRA

Founded by Delson Castanheira, this farm is situated at an elevation of 1040 meters above sea level, where coffee is cultivated with care and attention. The farm's coffee growing practices are guided by the principles of economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The mountainous terrain and many manually managed plots contribute to the generation of income in the area. The farm's coffee is from a range of cultivars, including Topazio, Acaia Mundo Novo, Catuai, Catucai, Icatu, and Rubi. The coffee is processed using both natural and pulped natural methods, and influenced by the soil and microclimate of the region. The farm is dedicated to coffee production, trying to maintain the productive area, however, growing in productivity and quality, with constant investments in production technology, post-harvest processing and team training.

VIVIANE GARIA

My parents moved to Bugio in 1962. The property was part of my grandfather's farm, who was already a farmer.

I was born in 1963 and I was the first daughter. I lived at the farm until I was 8 years old. My first year of school I had to go by horse to the school that was in the District of Córrego do Ouro. After a few years I went to live in Três Pontas with my mother and 2 brothers, that was when my youngest sister Vanessa was born, today my partner in the coffee business.

I left to study in Belo Horizonte, and I returned to participate in the management of the farm in 2012 when my father got sick and went to live in Três Pontas.

He passed away in 2017 and I became an inventory manager, took courses and lectures to understand more about the coffee business and during the pandemic we decided to renovate the house and started several new processes and certifications.

Everything was possible thanks to the presence of the manager who had been at the farm since forever. We planted new cultivars such as Arara and Topázio. We started to better understand the world of coffee and improve quality of life for employees. We repaired and renewed the houses for the employees, and worked on bettering the farm structures.

Then Flowins and Mountain Coffee became our partners and we started the process of reducing the use of herbicides and pesticides. We have already planted 4 hectares of forest to recover 3 springs at the farm.

We increased the permanent preservation area by 6 hectares. Apart from the other 3 springs.

Post harvest gets easier year by year since we started working with Flowins. The coffee analyzes were fundamental for us to improve management and discover new possibilities in the selling of the bags.