Luiza and her family’s story with coffee began a few decades ago. Her grandparents lived on the farm that now belongs to her parents, who were born and raised among the coffee trees. When her grandfather passed away, her father began dedicating himself more to coffee production, and it was in 2004 that he realized the coffees produced there were different.

But it was in 2010 that they were introduced to the Illy Coffee Contest, and since then they started focusing on producing special lots for competitions like this one, as well as BSCA (Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association), Florada, and SIC (International Coffee Week).

Luiza went to study dentistry in another city, in the countryside of Rio de Janeiro. She stayed there for two years but decided to return to be closer to her family because she was unhappy. It was back on the farm, working with coffee production, that she found herself — and she now dedicates herself to it wholeheartedly. She and her brother fell in love with this culture, inspired by their father’s care and passion, and today they are fully committed to producing specialty coffees.

Currently, Luiza is studying accounting at university and plans to specialize in rural accounting.

Producing specialty coffee is neither simple nor easy — especially mountain-grown coffee, which requires manual work from planting to harvest. Luiza often says:

“We don’t make coffee special — the coffee is special from the fruit itself. We just take care of it until it reaches the final consumer.”