Brazil’s ironic lack of coffee
Brazil’s coffee may fill the world’s cups, but finding a good brew in some parts of the country is surprisingly difficult.
Brazil is the world’s biggest coffee grower, yet coffee shops aren’t the strong suit of steamy northern Brazil, where big matches such as Italy-Costa Rica, Switzerland-France and Germany-Ghana were scheduled. Even in the tony neighbourhoods of Salvador, Brazil’s third largest city, some of the restaurants offer instant coffee along with their desserts.
That may have had some World Cup-goers reaching for a soda for their hit of caffeine to keep up the festa.
“You can have a coffee at a bakery, gas station and a few other places but typically there’s no coffee shops around,” said Demilson Batista, sales director of producer Legender Specialty Coffees, in Minas Gerais. “Besides, coffee is awful up north when found.”
That’s because growers like Batista and scores of other growers of arabica beans-the mild-tasting variety that Starbucks Corp. and others say they use exclusively-export most of their production.
Brazil is the source of around one-third of the world’s beans. Whatever the weather in Brazil, like this year’s severe drought, it influences prices for consumers thousands of miles away.
While Brazil is second to the U.S in coffee consumption, around two-thirds of its annual output is shipped abroad each year, according to the Council of Brazilian Coffee Exporters. Most of that is the arabica beans, which comprise the bulk of Brazil’s Production and global consumption. That leaves poorer quality and harsher tasting beans for consumers back in Brazil.
Henrique Sloper Araujo, president of Camocim Organic Farms and a member of the Brazilian Speciality Coffee Association, who grows coffee in Espirtu Santo, said there is a “cultural difference between north and south” where more coffee drinking is more common in the southern states. He said quality is often lower in the north.
But part of the experience is getting down with the local flavour, even if it means downing a few cups of at-first harsh-tasting brews, some say.
“You have to embrace the cafezinho,” said Robert Flam, who produced several Brazilian music festivals and is the director of Jailhouse Coffee, a New York-based coffee brand. “Don’t look for lattes…small cup of dark coffee, no finesse, spoon of sugar, and go!”
Luckily, Brazil is also the world’s largest producer of sugar.