Fazenda Bela Vista Isabela Reis Women’s LIFT

The story behind the coffee

Isabela Lima Reis is a third-generation coffee farmer in the South of Minas region, in the southern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Minas Gerais is the third largest producer of arabica coffee in Brazil, accounting for 30% of the total harvest. Most of Brazil’s coffee farms are relatively flat and use mechanical harvesters, and in Minas this is also true, but parts of the region are quite mountainous, and here farmers still handpick their coffee.

Bela Vista, with 440 hectares of planted coffee, has both steep handpicked fields as well as the more modern flat mechanically harvested. Like much of the coffee in Brazil, the land is meticulously managed, producing 35 bags per hectare and an average of 1495 bags per year.

Bela Vista plants Catucai, Catuai, Mundo Novo, Yellow Bourbon and Arara, and after harvesting is naturally processed, laying the cherries on large patios to dry over the course of two weeks before removing the dried cherry from the seed.