It is difficult to speak about special coffees in Brazil without mentioning Lucca Cafés Especiais, located in the neighborhood of Batel, in Curitiba, capital of Paraná. The couple Georgia and Luiz Franco de Souza inaugurated the cafeteria in 2002, being the first coffee shop dedicated to special coffees in the country.
Currently, Lucca Cafés Especiais (name in honor of Luiz’s grandfather, who used to be a coffee producer in Paraná) is huge. With three floors, the site has its own Probat P5 toaster, a brew bar that serves coffee in various filtered methods (Clever, Chemex, Hario V60, Kalita Wave, Aeropress, Siphon and French Press), a La Marzocco Strada espresso machine with a special pressure profile graphics for each different type of grain or toast, a restaurant with craft beers, a candy confectionery and a boutique that sells equipment, accessories and micro batches in packs of 250 grams.
Upstairs, there is the Lucca Lab, a school where 14 courses are offered (Introducing the World of Special Coffees, Barista Level I and Advanced, Brewers Level I, Espresso Extraction and Milk Vaporization Training, Latte Art, Water Technology, Basic Toasting, Sensitive Analysis, Basic Cupping, Cupping for Graduates, Home Coffee Preparation, How to Build Your Business Plan & Supervised Training), as well as advice on cafes, tastings and workshops.
The greatness of the cafeteria also appears in the local coffee varieties: there are more than 30 different micro batches of all coffee regions in Brazil. Hand-picked by Georgia (which also holds the toasting every Tuesday and Thursday) through a real Coffee Hunting, it visits farms of the whole country in search of the best grains to meet the quality standard of the cafeteria.
Lucca Cafés is the most awarded coffee shop in Brazil, with eight awards of Best Coffee in the City, awarded by Veja magazine. It is also the cafeteria with the most award-winning bartenders inside and outside Brazil: a Latter Art World Cup vice-championship, a fourth place in the Cup Tasters World Cup, a fifth place in the Brewers World Cup, 14 Brazilian Champion titles, nine Vice-Championships and 13 regional titles.
Lucca Café Especiais
Address: Alameda Pres. Taunay, 40 – Batel, Curitiba – PR, 80420-180
Telephone: (41) 3016-6675
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 09am to 8pm
Saturday: 09am to 09pm
Sunday: 12am to 09pm
