The first coffee shop of the future chain Baobá Coffee Lisboa has just opened in Lisbon with almost two years of delay, it has just opened in Lisbon. Installed at numbers 256 to 258 of São Paulo street, in the Portuguese capital, the coffee shop would be named Onníe, like the one on Paulista Avenue in São Paulo, at this point it should have a few other little sisters spread around town. But the pandemic came, and all the plans of Baobá group had to wait.
As soon as the worst part of the pandemic of covid-19 passed and with the commerce has been returning to the normal in Portugal, the Group inaugurated, at the end of September, the coffee shop that was renamed Baobá Café Lisboa.
And with a differential: it will only work with special Brazilian coffees from Baobá farm, located in the town of São Sebastião da Grama, in São Paulo. “And also, from other Brazilian origins, but always with our brand”, explains Baobá Group’s international operations manager, the Portuguese João Damião.
The idea is to strengthen the consumption of Brazilian special coffees in Portugal, which has suffered some resistance, including the professionals of the scene of special coffee in Portugal, since they prefer African coffees, especially Ethiopian and Central American ones. The cause? Pure ignorance of the countless Brazilian origins and varieties. Even today, for many people abroad, our coffee is only good for blends. And we must fight against this ignorance by offering knowledge.
The choice in offering only Brazilian special coffees has already made the competition happens. “We already noticed that other coffee shops took note of it and reacted. But for us it was the more natural path, after all, we produce our own coffee and want to tell this story to the Portuguese and foreigners that visit the country,” explains João.
At the Baobá Coffee shop Lisboa are offered six varieties of coffee, including Icatu, which the average Portuguese person has never heard about. All the coffees have above 80 points in the SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) scale.
Another good news is that the espresso is sold for only one euro. “I can say with certainty that this is the cheapest espresso made with special coffee of all Portugal,” enthuses João.
At this moment they are using a yellow obatã from the Baobá farm that received 86.2 points from the SCA as the blend of the day. “We offer an experience to our customers with our coffee and a sweet of cheese so that they can differentiate the notes of the drink,” he adds.
“We offer a sensory experience to our customers, named Baobá Espresso Experience: for each microbatch we serve, we harmonize it with a different chocolate bonbon. For the microbatch that we are serving at the time of this interview, the harmonization is done with a cheese bonbon”, he completes.
In a Brazilian coffee shop, even if in Portugal, our beloved cheese bread could not be missing. But here it is made with a mix of cheese from the mountains of Serra da Canastra, from Minas Gerais, and from the Azores, a region of Portugal. “And the same professional also produces our granola,” he explains.
The most famous Brazilian sweet also could not be left out, the brigadeiro, which at Baobá Café Lisboa is offered in two flavors: chocolate and coffee. Another option are the pistachio and pear cakes with coffee. In all the recipes that use coffee, of course, they use Baobá’s farm coffee.
Soon the coffee shop will offer courses and cuppings for lovers of special Brazilian coffee. The house also has a store that sells roasted and ground coffees and different preparation methods such as the aeropress.
@baobacafelisboa
São Paulo Street, 256 to 258, Lisbon, Portugal
Hours of operation: 8am to 6pm, every day of the week
@onnie_coffee
Paulista Avenue, 807, shop 58 – São Paulo, SP
If you want to know more about the special coffee scene in Portugal, read here: Camelia sinensis; BOP Café; Equadro Chocolate Shop; C‘Alma Specialty Coffee room; The specialty coffee, bean-to-bar chocolate and tea scene of Porto, 7groaster.
Photo credits: 88mm Studio
