FAZENDA DA MATA

Set over 50 hectares, Fazenda Da Mata covers an entire mountain side. Driving up and down the steep inclines in his 1980 jeep, Adonis enthusiastically goes about the work of tending to his land and checking the development of each lot. At 75, every cup of Fazenda Da Mata draws on his wealth of experience.

Fazenda Da Mata is a vertical farm that climbs from 900 metres to just under 1400 metres at its peak. On the Mantiqueira Mountain range in Brazil, the farm benefits from Volcanic soil that is rich with nutrients. In Portuguese ‘Da Mata’ means ‘of the forest’ and reflects the large area of forest Adonis preserves across his farm.

Visiting the farm with Adonis and driving up and down in his jeep, you can feel the change in temperature as the altitude increases. Over his many years of farming, Adonis has invested in terracing his fields making farm-work in part mechanizable and more efficient.

With dense forest and steep slopes, the farm benefits from a distinct microclimate. The unusually cool evenings allow for prolonged maturation of the coffee cherries, increasing the density of organic material and helping to produce a sweeter cup that is perfectly suited to natural processing.