Are you enticed by the stories from lectures, podcasts and magazine’s articles about Brazilian coffee culture? This is your opportunity to have an immersive experience with your feet among coffee trees and your heart in the clouds.
With the densest concentration of mountains 1,600 meters or higher in the state of Minas Gerais, the town of Araponga welcomes you to learn more about modern family farming. The traditions and innovations of this unique coffee growing region will be shown and explained to you by mothers, cousins, and fathers, and translated into English by our guide, all with a freshly brewed cup of joe in your hand.
The peaceful little city, named after a regional bird known for its singing, is all about coffee 365 days per year. Located in Minas Gerais state, it started gaining lots of attention in the specialty coffee community when small producers began to win several national and international quality contest awards in the last decade.
According to the city’s Secretary of Agriculture, 80% of its economy revolves around coffee production. It is well known that most of the 8,165 inhabitants work in small coffee farms (less than 20 hectares of cultivated area).
Allied to that, steep mountains make impossible to insert machinery that usually facilitate all the farming and harvest processes. The hard work has been done by hand year round since 1880!
This is a Brazil that most people in the international community have no idea exists.
Therefore, we designed this especial tour to Araponga, in Matas de Minas region. Showing different realities in the same country is part of our mission. In this trip, small independent producers will explain how they overcame their financial challenges after professionalizing their harvest e post-harvest processes. When these procedures shifted, everything changed, and quality and productivity increased.
Rich in fauna and flora, the region will welcome you in grand style: great coffee, breathtaking landscapes, and coffee producers sharing their experiences in innovation and tradition. Besides talking about coffee, these rural microentrepreneurs will be glad to introduce their local cuisine, culture, and of course, their famous cachaça (pronounced ka-SHA-sa)!
About the region
- Rich tropical fauna and flora
- Biodiversity of Serra do Brigadeiro’s preserved área, part of the UN Biosphere Reserve
- Highest peak concentration in the state of Minas Gerais (mountains with minimum 1,600 meters high)
- Source of Rio Doce and Rio Paraíba do Sul rivers
- Vegetation: mix of Atlantic forest with tropical forest
Travel intinerary
We designed a special itinerary for you at three properties that are icons of this region. Also included are workshops, coffee tastings and talks about coffee production from seed to cup. All of these are surrounded by panoramic views of coffee plantations and beautiful sunsets.
Since coffee is made by people for people, it is natural that this tour will introduce you to local culture and cuisine as well.
- Accommodation in a double room
- Consult us for individual and additional apartment prices.
- Meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and coffee… of course!)
- Comfortable and reliable transportation during four (4) days among coffee farms, and the transfer: Belo Horizonte/Araponga/Belo Horizonte
- Travel insurance
- COFFEA Trips Expert Guide Helga Andrade
- Visit to 3 coffee farms and other experiences designed just for you!
- Cupping sections
- Visiting coffee crops, observe Brazilian harvest and post-harvest technology as well as techniques (picking, drying patios, de-pulping machinery, fermentations tanks, etc)
- Region’s natural beauty particularly at the Serra do Brigadeiro:
- The Serra do Brigadeiro State Park shelters the most important remnant of seasonal semi-deciduous Atlantic Forest in the state of Minas Gerais, it’s part of the UN Biosphere Reserve. The forests shelter a great variety of endangered animal and plant species, some of which are still unknown to science. The Park’s ecosystem is rich in plant species such as bromeliads, peroba, ipê, orchids, candeias, jequitibas, canjaranas and palms.
(more info here)
- The Serra do Brigadeiro State Park shelters the most important remnant of seasonal semi-deciduous Atlantic Forest in the state of Minas Gerais, it’s part of the UN Biosphere Reserve. The forests shelter a great variety of endangered animal and plant species, some of which are still unknown to science. The Park’s ecosystem is rich in plant species such as bromeliads, peroba, ipê, orchids, candeias, jequitibas, canjaranas and palms.
- Costs with transportation before and after COFFEA Trips’ experience (airfare, bus tickets, etc)
- Alcoholic beverages
- Personal expenses like shopping for souvenirs, etc.
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