On the very first day, I landed in Sao Paulo and headed straight to FAF (Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza) to see its owner, Felipe. Felipe and his family run FAF coffee as well as a few other local coffee farms. After meeting Felipe, we drove to Mococoa, which is located in the north of Sao Paulo. We had long conversations during the five-hour drive and he explained his experience of the coffee industry in Brazil. I quickly realised what an abundance of knowledge he had. He told me that FAF and his ultimate goal was to educate other farmers and grow as an industry and a community. After a long drive to FAF, we jumped straight into the cupping table. The quality of the coffee was impressive, and most of FAF’s stock tasted exceptional – clean and fruity with bright citrus notes. They tasted like honey-processed or Colombian coffee, rather than the classic Brazilian natural coffees that we were used to.

On my second day in Brazil, we returned to FAF to meet another grower, Joao Hamilton. Joao is one of the old-school farmers who now works with Felipe. He’s very passionate and grows some incredible coffee.

(Pictured: Joao Hamilton from left, myself and Joao’s son Victor) 

After spending two and a half days at FAF, I headed to Carmo Coffee at Minas Gerais, which is a six-hour drive from FAF.

Carmo’s factory was enormous and also very impressive. They sold 900 containers of coffee last year alone – most of the coffees they purchased are from the Luiz's family. They also buy and work with some smaller farmers. Since they operate mostly as an exporter, they don’t own a farm like FAF. However, the founder Luiz has his own farm and his family are the main coffee suppliers in Carmo.

On the second day at Carmo, Leticia, one of Carmo’s staff, and I moved down to their head office in Sao Lourenco to visit some farms. 

The first stop was Fazenda Irmas Pereira, which was a coffee we had bought before. It was owned by Luiz Paulo’s aunty. The farm was beautiful and all the processes were structured and efficient. The workers worked very efficiently and some cool experimental techniques were being explored.

We drove for another hour to check out one of the oldest coffee mountains in Brazil. It was amazing as some of the coffee trees were 40 years old. They were so tall, around 2m high, but people don’t harvest these areas since the coffees aren't of great quality. They mentioned that they kept the trees to show the visitors, but also out of respect as they had such a natural history and heritage.

I also visited Fazenda Santuário Sul, which was another memorable farm. As I was there, I got a sense of the reality facing many specialty coffee farmers. There’s a shortage of hand-pickers in season and a lack of farming equipment where it’s needed. This has led to many specialty coffee farmers closing down in the past few years, particularly during the pandemic. (2020 was a particularly low production year for Brazil).

I felt incredibly lucky to spend four days at Carmo Coffees. Visiting farms that we've been using for the last few years was really special and interesting too. 

Whilst there was so much joy and hope throughout the trip, it was heartbreaking to see lots of great farmers giving up due to financial issues and a lack of support, even though Brazil is the biggest coffee-exporting country in the world.

After the trip, I brought back many samples from both FAF and Carmo Coffees and we decided to purchase 2 full containers from Carmo Coffees. I'm really excited to share these coffees with our customers this year, in both our blends and on our single origin rotation. I hope to represent our producers well and build on these relationships in the future and bring more delicious coffees for all to enjoy.