Added value of the product was also an important factor in changing his father’s vision and helping to move forward with the business.
“Specialty coffee was what brought the power to change my career transition”, so begins specialty coffee producer Aline Codo. There in Coqueiral, in the south of Minas Gerais, she is the fourth generation producer in the family and found a new professional sense in Entrelinhas do Cafezal.
Graduated in communication engineering, working at a large television station and after visiting more than 50 countries in a season outside Brazil, it was in 2016 that Aline started to look at the family’s coffee production with different eyes.
Until then, production was handled by his father and his brother was also not interested in continuing the business in the field. “At the same time that I was already rethinking corporate life, I kept thinking that a coffee plantation had a lot of history, it lasted 30 years. At first, my father seemed to be bothered that none of the children were interested”, he comments.
Despite the will to make it happen, the repeat was not totally “lively”, recalls Aline. Uniting the before and after of coffee growing, as in many families, ends up bringing about certain impasses that can be broken with a lot of dialogue.
To understand the chain from end to end, the producer sought out courses that cover all areas: from the field to the cup, seeking technical knowledge about the sensory profile, preparation method and good practices to guarantee a quality drink.
“Even coming from a producing family, I needed more knowledge. It was from there that I discovered how passionate coffee was. Specialty coffee speaks a lot about people and when you enter this universe, it is very difficult to want to leave”, he says.
Rescuing her own story, some time later she bought an area that used to belong to her grandfather. From there she started her own production. She recalls that she arrived at a time when producers in the region were in a transition phase and the first step was to map quality.
“I made the entire map of the crops and soon we had the first export”, he says. The first sale of his own coffee was shipped to Canada. In this same process, she showed her father another universe, that of special coffee, and also managed to sell her coffee to Canada and Germany.
In addition, Aline states that it is important to highlight that despite being little talked about in the family, she is not the first woman to take charge of a coffee production. His great-grandmother also started to personally take care of the crops after his great-grandfather’s death.
“My father had that traditional commodity profile. When he saw that I sold the coffee with more than a thousand reais of difference, he drew attention and it was from this that he saw that other techniques also worked”, he comments.
In the cafe no one does anything alone
In the cafe no one does anything alone
If there is one truth for anyone involved with coffee growing, it is that nobody here does absolutely anything alone. One of the main sectors of the economy of this country is also a sector that moves through people.
Talking to someone who works with coffee is also understanding why the connections are so strong. In the case of Aline, the story does not happen differently. In addition to all the friends she has made with coffee, she also shares coffee and life with Daniel Carvalho, her husband and partner in a coffee shop and roasting facility in Sorocaba.
Daniel was also from another area of expertise, the pharmaceutical industry, and despite knowing about coffee plantations through Aline, it was in a hotel on a business trip abroad that he first saw the power of specialty coffee.
In the lobby of a hotel in the United States, a presentation of specialty coffees for buyers was taking place, which caught his attention.
Together they chose Sorocaba to move the specialty coffee scene. The city, which is known for the diversity of its beers, is now also beginning to discover the special nuances of coffee. To know more about the coffee shop just access @15coffeecompany no Instagram.
“It is still a city that lacks special coffee. We are the first coffee shop that plants, roasts and serves this coffee, and it is through knowledge that we are changing this reality”, comments Aline.
Not even the challenges posed by the pandemic made the couple change their minds. Flexibilization by flexibility and they gained space in the interior of São Paulo. Currently, Daniel is also an expert in specialty coffee, specializing in the drink and transforming all of this into information for the final consumer.
“Specialty coffee requires adversity. That’s why we have different producers, with different profiles. Consumers need to know how rich Brazilian specialty coffee is”, adds Aline.
She also comments that despite being a producer, she makes a point of presenting coffees from other producers in the cafeteria. The important thing is that the customer has different experiences each time he visits the site.
“We need to show this. Coffee is not just for waking up. We are working from end to end to try to close this cycle that has a lot of people involved”, he adds.
With the 23 vintage knocking on the door, Aline says that the feeling is one of excitement and good expectations, after such challenging years with climate issues. “Each harvest is a new universe, each year carries a new identity. I am very excited and feel privileged to be able to participate in the farm by the cup”, she concludes.
