Photo by Dan Bolton/STiR Tea & Coffee
Award-winning barista, and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras
São Paulo, Brazil
In a country rich in coffee history Isabela Raposeiras and the Coffee Lab she founded is a modern pioneer and champion of Brazil’s specialty coffee.
Can anyone be both a pioneer and newcomer in coffee? Raposeiras is an inspiration to anyone embarking on a new coffee endeavour.
“I want to show the world that Brazilian coffee can be more than they thought it could be,” she says.
Raposeiras has a coffee pedigree, but arrived late to coffee compared to most baristas. Her grandfather fled to Brazil as a refugee in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). A road builder he purchased a parcel of land and began growing coffee.
Romantic as it may seem, Isabela did not spend her childhood weeding, pruning, picking, and drying coffee cherries. Her family relocated frequently. She attended high school, travelled to the US living in Idaho Falls, Idaho as an exchange student while studying psychology at the Universidade Paulista and on returning worked as a flamenco dancer, actress, English teacher, semi-professional rollerblader, and cigar-smoking pilot who remains addicted to Formula 1 racing, to mention a few of her undertakings.
She recalls grandfather Galica Raposeiras displayed a passion for innovation.
“He was one of the first in Brazil to invest in mechanical coffee dryers. He was well ahead of his time, perhaps too far ahead, as a coffee farmer and above all as a coffee processor,” she said.
Creative energy
After returning to São Paulo she needed a job. Any job.
In 2000 her family had opened a restaurant in Paraty, in Rio de Janeiro. She said that it was here she first became curious about what it took to deliver a good product to customers.
She acknowledges today that she didn’t know the front from the back of an espresso machine. “I needed money to pay for college when a friend invited me to help set up a café, coffee bar and video shop in the Brooklin Paulista neighborhood,” she said. It was 2001 which illustrates the level of skills and coffee knowledge required of coffee professionals at that time.
Her timing was fortuitous.
The dozen producers who founded the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA) in 1991 were concerned their fine coffees tended to be abused before they could reach the end consumer. They acknowledged responsibility and in 2002 along with Cafés do Brasil, APEX, and the Ministry of Agriculture, organized a week-long barista training program in São Paulo with Norwegian instructor Kristoffen Sandven, a well-known trainer in Europe. The owner of the coffee bar sent Isabela, then 28. Her performance was impressive enough to be invited as one of 12 competitors to the first Brazil Barista Championship. She declined. After some persuasive arm-twisting, she showed up after all, and won with flying colors preparing a cappuccino and non-alcoholic Abapuru.
She next found work at an Ipanema chain shop and in June 2002 she travelled to Oslo to represent Brazil in the World Barista Championship. She did not do well, finishing 15th. The rest of the barista world was way ahead.
1 of 3
Photo by Dan Bolton/STiR Tea & Coffee
Coffee Lab is a combination kitchen, coffee bar, dining patio, classroom, and roastery all in one.
2 of 3
Photo by Dan Bolton/STiR Tea & Coffee
Coffee Lab serves a discerning São Paulo clientele.
3 of 3
Photo by Dan Bolton/STiR Tea & Coffee
Award-winning barista, and Coffee Lab founder Isabela Raposeiras
A lot to learn
There was obviously a lot more to learn. A few months later Raposeiras returned to Norway where she visited micro roasters, meet with members of a far more sophisticated barista culture, and above all dived deeper into the numerous sensory experiences provided by coffees from all corners of the world.
She expanded her skills from 2004-2008 by learning roasting, grinding and brewing processes from veterans that include Robert Thorensen, Anne Lunell, and Charles Nystrand. This quality time on her own left a lasting impression, opened doors, and stoked her desire to investigate what was behind them.
Soon after she completed both levels in the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) barista certification program, became a SCAE barista certifier, and in Brazil taught basic and advanced education and certification. Throughout her travels she championed local growers and promoted in person and online the unique flavors of Brazilian terroir.
But it did not pay the bills, even as a champion barista she earned 700 Brazilian reals (US$185) a week. She attended SCAE regularly and in time became a speaker sharing coffee knowledge, sensory knowledge at cuppings and psychological insights into consumer behavior. Her SCAE presentation “Perception of Coffee and Taste” elevated her status abroad.
She attended the World Cup Tasting Championship, which was won in 2005 by Tim Wendelboe who won the World Barista Chapionship in 2004. He became a friend and mentor.
“He is one of the best prospectors and tasters I know and an amazing roaster. He taught me to never compromise quality,” she said. In 2010 after observing significant improvements at the farm level Wendelboe began sourcing specialty coffee in Brazil.
“The best three coffees I have ever had in Brazil all came from Espirito Santo [state] and I tasted them all last year,” Wendelboe told the SCAA Chronicle. He points to regional flavor notes like molasses and chocolate, and undertones of dried fruits like figs and dates. “There is a range of flavors in Brazilian coffees that I recently discovered, much thanks to Isabela Raposeiras, who took me to Espirito Santo and showed me that Brazilian coffees can be very complex and have high acidity.”
Raposeiras qualified as an apprentice judge in the annual Cup of Excellence competition and in 2013 attended her first Specialty Coffee Association of American (SCAA) show in Boston.
Clever fox
In Portuguese raposa means fox and inspired the foxtail insignia for her own coffee shop in 2009. She chose to locate in the upscale Vila Madalena neighborhood on a tree-lined street. The Coffee Lab in São Paulo houses two roasters, a kitchen, a patio, and indoor lounge and coffee bar. In a city of 23 million where most settle for low-quality cafezinho, the coverall-clad Coffee Lab staff is trained to brew coffee in a dozen ways.
The quality coffee of Brazil’s small growers is featured in detail in her menu. The shop has been awarded numerous city and regional prizes for excellence including five consecutive “Coffee Bar of the Year” awards by São Paulo gastronomic magazine. Coffee there sells for 13 reals ($3.50) a cup.
After installing roasting equipment, the shop began supplying restaurants and other coffee establishments while earning a reputation as the finest training center in São Paulo. Meanwhile Raposeiras completed her studies and was awarded a masters in psychology in 2008.
Her graduation marked a fork in the road. Should she devote her future to helping people sort out their minds, or should she devote her future to sorting out opportunities in coffee? The choice was easy: She decided use her accumulated knowledge to stay with coffee. There were so many tempting, different and challenging coffee avenues to pursue.
Photo by Dan Bolton/STiR Tea & Coffee
Ivan Laranveira Petrich serves single origins in an Aeropress.
Roasting theories
After a brief introduction in Europe roasting remained unchartered territory. She wanted to prove some theories she had about improving quality by combining botanical varietals. She experimented with various processing methods. The new coffee bar enabled her to test her theories directly on consumers. After all, it is the consumer’s preference that defines success. She passed SCAA Q-Grader program building theoretical and practical skills and knowledge in assessing green coffee quality and grading.
Raposeiras’ pioneering roastery/training center/coffee bar and consumer marketing lab gives her control along the entire value-added process in coffee from soil to the end consumers.
“Brazilian coffee can be so much more through proper soucing, finding the best coffee rather than having it mixed,” she said. Getting to know the producers and paying fairly is critical, she says. Coffee Lab offers growers $6 to $10 per pound.
“People are leaving coffee because they don’t know its value. They haven’t been paid enough. Coffee Lab is one way to show them the prices they can get,” she explains.
Ideally she should have a small coffee farm in the back yard, but as the team in Coffee Lab already was involved in consulting with farms around the country that would have be considered “overkill.”
Coffee Lab is no longer a one-woman show. The company employs 13 and positions are never hard to fill due to its reputation as one of the most respected places to learn about coffee in the world.
Coffee Lab has expanded its reach through multilingual social media educating and informing coffee lovers through its website, blog, newsletter and news releases and with a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
A broad perspective
Wholesaling coffee has been replaced with a greater focus on education, training, and information. Visiting one finds a variety of technical equipment ranging from a 12-kilo Diedrich roaster to micro sensitive electronic thermometers and refractometers to the latest in espresso machines and good, old-fashioned Brazilian caffecino hand brewers. The store is stocked with single-serve machines and highly fashionable cold brew equipment.
Raposeiras has come to understand that farmers, consumers, baristas, coffee bars, micro roasters to mega roasters must continuously learn, experiment, experience, and hopefully prove or kill old coffee myths, while discovering new ones.
“There is more to Brazilian coffee than any of us have experienced to date,” she says.
In coffee there is only one eternal truth and that is that there is no eternal truth. It has been replaced by open minds. You find them in Coffee Lab.