Visits and cupping sessions: the expansion of knowledge from "Trips to Origin"
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Getting to know Brazil, its lands, its processes and, especially, the history of Brazilian coffee and coffee growers. This is what the roasters who participate in Nucoffee's "Trips to Origin" experience.
When they leave their countries bound for Brazil, these professionals open up their minds to the unknown universe of Brazilian coffees, willing to know more about our different flavors and quality.
What happens here in Brazil? A pleasant paradigm shift and the openness to new perspective.
The story of the first group of “Trips” 2019 involves a coffee roaster who has been living in the coffee universe since he was born.
Peter van den Berg, the owner of the store “São Paulo Coffee Roaster”, is an old cupper of Brazilian coffees. No wonder his cafeteria, founded over 100 years ago by his ancestors, bears the name of the largest Brazilian metropolis.
On his first visit to Brazil, Peter visited the Alta Mogiana coffee-growing region (in the interior of São Paulo) invited by Nucoffee to learn about the Brazilian processes and establish a real connection with local coffee growers, such as Marcio Resende, from Fazenda Limeira, and Ismael Nogueira, from Fazenda Aleluia.
Used to using Brazilian beans, Peter commented that Brazilian coffee is also complex, a type of coffee that Belgian consumers enjoy.
The roaster stated that he wants to widen his horizons and work with coffee beans from other Brazilian regions, in addition to those he already knows and took the opportunity to appreciate the variety, prices and quality, and further know about the coffee origin.
"This is new to me too, but it is very important to know where the coffee comes from and have a good relationship with the producers”.
Peter reminded that during Trips, he had the opportunity to attest the different ways farmers produce coffee, the post-harvest solutions used by Marcio, who decided to combine economic and social sustainability, the technological alternatives and the good relationship among the employees working in Fazenda Aleluia, owned by Ismael, who believes in an integration approach inside his production, without giving up on machinery and product innovations.
He also highlighted how pleasantly surprised he was during the cupping sessions. "I've been using Brazilian coffee for a long time, but I didn't know there was so much variety of specialty beans around here. I recently cupped some good specialty coffees here in Brazil. It was amazing! I loved coming and I'm looking forward to coming back".
While Peter does not come back for a second experience in Brazil, the importer Alexandre Figueiredo, a partner of Nucoffee for 2 years now, was pleased to return to Brazilian lands.
Alexandre is Brazilian but has been living in Poland for almost 10 years. The importer participated on a tour to the South and Cerrado regions of Minas Gerais with a group of Polish coffee roasters, in the second group of Trips to Origin 2019, and told about his experience.
- How important is the partnership with Nucoffee to you?
This partnership with Nucoffee provides us with the opportunity to work with all coffee-growing regions in Brazil importing different types of coffees. It also offers the opportunity to participate in tours like "Trips", meeting renowned people involved in coffee research and coffee-growing farms, showing to our visiting roasters that specialty versions of Brazilian coffee are being developed.
- How does Poland view Brazilian coffee today?
Despite being a coffee highly consumed in Poland, accounting for almost 80% of consumption, there is still a stigma that Brazilian coffee has a very similar, standard taste. That stigma was broken with the program "Trips". Our fellow coffee roasters in Poland really loved the coffee they tasted here. They could taste coffees with different notes, ranging from citrus fruit, floral and creamy notes. They participated in different cupping sessions, better than they expected.
- What are the expectations of the group regarding this “Trips” tour?
We aimed to know the coffee origins and select specialty coffees to prepare espressos, shifting from the basic espresso, as well as high-scored and brewed coffees, that have been well accepted by the Polish market.
For this purpose, we visited several farms and the University of Lavras. We also observed the post-harvest processes in a farm where 30% of the coffee produced go through the brewing process. Roasters got very pleased with everything they saw.
Thank you!
Nucoffee thanks all the producers who participated in “Trips to Origin” in 2019 for their partnership and specially their kindness in opening the doors of their farms as well as their lives in this unforgettable meeting.
Many thanks to the partners:
Fazenda Labareda – Gabriel Afonso
Fazenda Boa Vista - Orlando Zanneti
Fazenda Santo Antônio – João Toledo
São Benedito Estate Coffee – Mariana de Carvalho Junqueira
Fazenda Grota Funda - Glaucio Carneiro Pinto
Fazenda Central – Alessandro de Oliveira
Canastra Coffee – Pedro Braz
Fazenda Bom Sucesso – Luis Claudio Guerra
Fazenda Pântano – Grupo Naimeg
Fazenda Nunes Coffee - Gabriel Nunes
Fazenda Vitoria – Luiz Augusto Monguilod
Fazenda Marrecos - Antônio Francisquini Baptista
