Fazenda Barreiro was founded in 1820 by Joaquim Bernardes da Costa Junqueira, who acquired then-uncultivated

land around the spa town of Poços de Caldas in the southern region of Minas Gerais.

His son, Col. Agostinho José da Costa Junqueira, planted the first coffee fields towards the end of the 19th century, at an average altitude of 1150m in the fertile lands and mild climate of the São Domingos Mountain Range.

Over the past 30 years, his great grandson, Francisco Otávio Lotufo and family have sought to combine the family’s coffee growing traditions with a commitment to farming in an environmentally and socially responsible way. Francisco is dedicated to preserving the farm’s woods, water sources, native birds and animals, as well as supporting the 30 families of employees that live on the farm.

When the coffee is ripe it is either mechanically of hand picked depending on the location of the plot on the farm. They are then taken to to the wet mill where the coffees are then washed and sorted on density and ripeness. The coffee is then taken to the patio to dry for between 5 - 7 days initially being turned regularly during the day. The coffee is then transferred to mechanical driers to finish at 28ºC for nine hours a day until the moisture content in the bean reaches approximately 11%.

The beans are then placed in storage bins until they are ready to be taken to the warehouse.