The brand was born with the mission to democratize specialty coffees’ consumption
Born in Araruama, in Rio de Janeiro’s Lakes Region, Raphael da Silva Brandão is a very obstinate person. Only 28 years old, and natural entrepreneur, he fell in love with the specialty coffee world a short time ago and created a very strong brand: Café di Preto, whose mission is to bring protagonism to black people in the coffee world by including them in all stages of the process: from planting to the cup.
“My goal is to have a profitable business with a coffee made by black people for black people. I want to democratize this drink that has our blood and sweat in its structure and history. I want black people producing and drinking high quality coffee at affordable price”, explains Raphael.
“When you buy Café di Preto, you’re not buying only coffee, you’re buying collectivity and representativeness”
At age 19, Rapha left Araruama to live in Rio and study automation and control engineering in Nova Iguaçu. He changed his course and decided to study production engineering at UFRJ. He began to fall in love with cooking and his chocolate balls were his sustenance in those days.
And then his friend Allan Basílio, owner of micro roaster Faço Café @facocafe invited him to work. “I joined on February 26, 2019 to place stickers on packaging, but fell in love with the universe of specialty coffees and began to study on my own about the coffee business”, he explains. He is currently responsible for stock, production and roasting at Faço Café.
In November of that same year, he visited for the first time the ICW (International Coffee Week) and was amazed. “But, at the same time, I was looking for other black people, like me, in the specialty coffee universe and couldn’t find them. That’s when the inspiration to create Café di Preto brand came”, he tells.
Back to Rio, he commented with Allan about his idea and was fully supported. They agreed that Rapha could use the company’s roaster in alternative hours at a symbolic value for him to roast his coffees. “But I didn’t want to sell coffee only, I wanted to include and value black people work. For that I needed to find black specialty coffee growers. I made a search in a WhatsApp group with 250 roasters and found only two. I sent a message to one of them and he did not understand the proposal and never answered me back. That was a tough phase, I almost gave up”, he explains.
But he decided to start the business anyway, because he believed that opportunities would arise, naturally. Then, in December 2020, he asked for the help of another friend, @drawlon, black artist and illustrator to create a logo that was consistent with the project. Next, he opened a little store on Shoppee, Instagram account, and then on Twitter. “I could not inaugurate the brand with coffee produced by black growers, but I found two coffee farming black families in the south of Minas Gerais and the coming coffees will surely come from them”, he says. One of them is from producer Neide Aparecida Peixoto, @neide_peixoto.
He began by trading two different micro lots, Esperança and Dandara. Esperança is 100% Coffea arabica from Catuai Vermelho variety, cultivated in Minas Gerais Cerrado region at an altitude of 1,100 meters, which received medium roast. And Dandara is 100% Coffea arabica from Catucai Vermelho variety, cultivated in Rio de Janeiro state northwest region at altitude of 900 meters.
The names are also homage to two very important black women in the movement: Esperança Garcia, considered the first black lawyer in Brazil, and Dandara dos Palmares, known as the wife of Zumbi dos Palmares, who mastered fighting techniques with capoeira and was truly a leader.
As to prices, Raphael is concerned with offering his coffees for a price cheaper than that of most specialty coffees in the market, thanks to the support he has received from Faço Café, and the fact that, for now, Café di Preto is a one person company. “Around 80% of Rio de Janeiro peripheral population is black and if I practice a high price policy, this public won’t consume my specialty coffees”, he explains. The little packages of Café di Preto are being marketed on Shoppee.com, and the price ranges from R$ 17.60, for Dandara 250g ground, Esperança 250g ground to R$ 23.10 or the Resistência combo at R$ 34.10, among other options.
Empirical learning
Raphael could not yet attend a formal roasting training; he learnt with the practice of roasting to Faço Café. In order to help, a friend translated a booklet by expert Scott Rao @whereisscottrao, which has helped him a lot, and he studies it on a daily basis.
“In five years I intend to attend a formal roasting training, another on sensory perception, and become Q-Grader, participate in the roasting competition at CIC in 2023, and start a coffee shop. I want to be a highly qualified professional in the universe of specialty coffees, help in the professional progress of many other black professionals, and inspire them to become successful businessmen!”, he explains. As I mentioned in the introduction of the story, Raphael is a very obstinate person. And this quality will make of him an example for many people! More than a coffee brand, what Raphael is doing is an attempt to return to black people the relevance of their work in coffee plantations in Brazil. “The structural prejudice makes people refer to the work of black as a work poorly done. I want to erase that. Café di Preto is made by black people for black people. My wish is that when a person drinks my coffee he will be proud of the work of black people, because he will be drinking a high quality coffee. Let’s deconstruct this line!” says Raphael.
