Its founder, Luiz Otávio Pôssas Gonçalves, has worked with drinks for over 50 years. He started manufacturing Coca-Cola in Minas Gerais and is also known for creating Kaiser beer and Kero Coco, the first boxed coconut water in the country, in addition to continuing to be an entrepreneur in the field. The emergence of Vale Verde was gradual and began when Luiz Otávio received a small still from his uncle, which inspired him to enter the cachaça market. The Vale Verde brand was born in 1985. During this period, Luiz Otávio went in search of new techniques to improve the fermentation and distillation of the drink in Europe. With European know-how, Vale Verde Extra Premium emerged, aged for three years. He then went on to win awards and, consequently, his fame grew throughout Brazil. The farm, which maintains the manufacturing tradition, began to receive many visitors. This was how, in 2002, the Vale Verde Ecological Park was born, located in the Cachaças Theme Park, in Betim, in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, which houses around 1,300 animals including birds, reptiles and mammals, in addition to getting to know the Cachaça Museum with stories about the history of the drink since Ancient Egypt. The place has more than two thousand different labels, in addition to the complete collection of the Vale Verde brand. With the six tons of sugar cane that are used per day during the harvest, around 140 thousand liters of cachaça were produced in 2014. Part of the sugarcane bagasse was used as fuel for production machines and the rest as organic fertilizer for the sugarcane field. In May 2014, a new drink joined the product line, Cachaça Vale Verde Prata 700ml, which already represents 10% of the group's beverage sales. With a genuine flavor and 40% alcohol content, it has a natural color and, of course, the Vale Verde quality standard. The drink is also popularly known as white or silver. Vale Verde Prata does not go through barrels after distillation, it is simply bottled and ready for consumption. It is perfect for lovers of "branquinha" and for making drinks, as it gives a striking flavor to cocktails and caipirinhas. Source: Cachaçaria Nacional.