Sitio da Laje is a 75-hectare estate located in the municipality of Poço Fundo, part of the Barreiro region of Minas Gerais. Coffee (specifically Catuai) has been grown here for over 40 years by Varnei Alves and his family. Elias, the youngest son, encouraged his father to focus on producing high quality coffee in order to remain profitable growing coffee in an area of Brazil that is uniquely mountainous. Varnei and his sons, Elias and Estevan, coordinate and oversee the harvest while their wives are in charge of the drying on patios. All of the Alves’ coffee is hand-picked, and all of the processing is done on-site. To better organize and market the harvest, they have divided their farm into multiple parcels. When asked what he would like to tell consumers who enjoy his coffee, Elias answered, “This coffee is produced with passion and love by my family. We have lived in the same place and grown coffee here for decades and are finally seeing good results from our daily hard work. We hope you will enjoy it; that is our motivation to keep producing better quality coffee.”
