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The coffee plant (Coffea sp.) is a plant of the family Rubiaceae and of the gender Coffea, of which seeds picked, the coffee, for the preparation of a stimulating drink, also known as coffee. The coffee plant is a vigorous plant or a small tree that arrives easily to a height of about 3-3,5 m. The main stem is erect, and the secondary branches leaves the main tree in an approximate angle of 90°. The leaves, opposed wavy in the boders and of coloration green-grayish when young, are found in these branches. The white and perfumed flowers appear in great profusion, what turns it also as an ornamental plant.
The fruits are oval, being born green and passing to red and later black, according with the maturation phases. Flat and brilliant peel, usually containing two seeds of coloration grayish, white-yellowish or yellow-greenish, wrapped up win a white pulp, sweetened. The toasted seeds are grounded to produce a stimulating drink - the coffee. The main active ingredient being caffeine.
The municipality of Mosteiros occupies the mountainous region of fertile soils and has several microclimates, essentially good agricultural lands and a vast area dedicated to the cultivation of the coffee, the famous Coffee of Fogo "Café do Fogo".
The coffee of Fogo grows in more humid areaa of tMosteiros, and it is today considered "one of the best coffee in the world."
Brief History about the Coffee of Fogo
The introduction of coffee, are believed to have happened in the XVIII century (1700) when the creation of a margadio at Monte Queimado took place in the municipality of Mosteiros, by its first proprietor, Pedro Fidalgo de Andrade.
The fame of the coffee began to jump over the lands of Cape Verde, in the height foreign trade, later arriving in Portugal. The coffee was the Portuguese overseas product of maxim category and of big income to Cape Verde.
It is the fertil land where the coffee finds the best climatic conditions develop and frutify.
The totality of the production is mainly cultivated on an altitude that varies between the 350 and 1000 meters above the sea level. The superior quality of this coffee is largely due to conditions of cultivation and of the production. The coffee plants were planted in the most inhospitable soil (that presented bad conditions for the workers) on the volcanic hillsides, cultivated in a rich and organic matter, with absence of mechanical means - not even a tractor. Being done mostly manually, later it gained knowledge previously used and that had been acquired initially in France and later in North America.
The Coffee of Fogo, Monte Queimado, collected first and second prémios prizes on an agricultural exhibition in Praia in 1917 and 1918, Gold Medals on the Colinial exibition of Porto in 1934, besides participation of a great exhibition in Portuguese India in 1954.
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