This could be just another tale about how specialty coffee changed a small producer’s life, but in special case it goes much further. This is the story of an intense pursuit for quality and a search for better techniques before and after the harvest and, it is also about the important role that Bourbon Specialty Coffee had played during this improvement process. 

Located in the volcanic region of Poços de Caldas (Minas Gerais state), Sítio Serra has the ideal conditions for great coffees. With much courage and good will, Marcelo and his wife Edilaine investing in coffee years ago but the profits at that time weren’t enough to provide better conditions for their family. Until then, the producer had ignored the region’s potential for high quality beans and had suffered from bad coffee pricing for a long time. 

At an altitude of 1,300 meters, they started planting Yellow Catuaí, Mundo Novo and, later on, Yellow Bourbon. It was in 2013, though, that Marcelo’s love story with specialty coffee really started. This was the year that he achieved first place in the Poços de Caldas Quality Contest and realized how quality coffee could change his family’s life. From then on, quality became a priority and quantity was part of the past. After this important achievement, his coffees started becoming famous in the region after winning other quality contests. 

Nowadays, Marcelo has a close relationship with Bourbon specialists and he can count on its big exporter infrastructure. “Edilaine is responsible for the drying process and Marcelo takes care of the harvest and farming. Their teamwork is fundamental for the consistent results they reap year after year since we started our partnership,” states Bourbon trader, Thiago Trovo. In addition to processing guidance, the company helps these producers to better understand their product and how it behaves in the market according to the SCAA cupping protocol.

As a family farm, all the activities are well-organized by husband and wife. In the steep terrain, Marcelo has the duty of collecting only the ripe fruit by hand. He is in charge of picking the cherries during the harvest and taking care of the plants’ health before and after the harvest. 

Her perfectionist personality has made Edilaine the head of the most delicate process during the harvest: coffee drying. It is she who separates the green beans when they appear and also decides when it’s the proper time to remove the coffee from the sun. This is great teamwork that Bourbon Specialty Coffee proudly supports.