After a hiatus of almost two years due to health problems and the birth of her baby, Magalhães leaves her partnership at Lina Café to prioritize her work as a roaster and consultant
The arrival of a baby is always a watershed in the life of any woman. When it comes with a serious health issue, it is even more challenging. Nevertheless, if she is an entrepreneur and has to deal with all these issues at the same time, one of these is bound to happen: either she goes crazy or she comes out of it much stronger.
The second hypothesis is more likely when it comes to a very important character for the Brazilian specialty coffee market: Silvia Magalhães, the first and only Brazilian barista to reach sixth place in the world tournament held in Japan, in 2007, the best placement ever reached by a Brazilian in an international championship. She was also three-time champion – 2002, 2003, and 2007 – in the Brazilian championship.
Her first contact with specialty coffees took place in London, where she worked as a barista, followed by specialization courses in Switzerland, Denmark, and the United States. Currently, she is the owner of SM Café brand and defines herself as an entrepreneur in the field of specialty coffees, doing a little of everything: buying, selling, roasting, and providing consulting services.
Last year, she opened Lina Café at Avenida Paulista, in São Paulo, with three other partners – including Facundo Guerra, an Argentine based in Brazil, responsible for the creation of several establishments, such as Mirante 9 de Julho, Bar dos Arcos and Blue Note São Paulo – each with very well defined responsibilities. “I really wanted to get back in touch with the public and hear what they have to say about the coffees. I realize, however, that I was more committed to day-to-day work than my other partners, and given the fact that I could not dedicate 100% of my time to the coffee shop, we decided to sell the business,” she said.
The business will be taken over by the staff of RomeoRomeo Café, probably in June this year, after a few adaptations.
“In my consulting services, I always state that if one is going to open a coffee shop and is not able to stay in the operation, it is best to reconsider their plans. A coffee shop is a business that demands a lot from the owner,” he said.
Magalhães knows what she is talking about. Her first business was a small coffee shop set up inside Suxxar Gourmet Store, at Avenida Faria Lima, where she met the former governor of São Paulo, Orestes Quércia, a coffee grower himself, who had plans to open a large coffee shop in the region.
Magalhães soon closed her shop to work on the project that would become Octavio Café. “I stayed there for seven years, two of them working exclusively on the project that would become the most iconic coffee shop in the city, the one located at Avenida Faria Lima, in São Paulo. “We started literally from scratch, picking the name, logo, architectural design, furniture, coffee, and everything else that involved the project,” he explained.
SM Cafés
Her company, SM Cafés, offers a coffee hunting service, curatorship for producers, and preparation of exclusive blends, roasted by Magalhães herself. They serve numerous customers, including Petrobras, supplying coffee to all Petrobras-owned BR stores.
The conquest of a client as important as Petrobras has enabled the businesswoman to dedicate more to the specialty coffees, her great passion. “After having health problems, I began to look at life in a very different way. I firmly believe that we all have a greater purpose. Mine is to help the small producers, guiding them with my experience. I worked very closely with several people, mainly from the region of Caparaó, about three years ago, helping them harvest the coffees in the best manner, teaching them how to dry coffee, etc. I talk a lot with them about what it means to produce with quality, as well as searching for other people who can also pay a fair price for these coffees, as I am not able to buy everything they produce,” she said.
One of these people is the largest investor of the Santo Grão Network, New Zealander Marco Kerkmeester. “Marco and I met for many years, when I took care of the courses and training at the coffee shop,” she said.
Last year, Kerkmeester decided to set up a roasting plant in Cotia – Experientia – in the Greater São Paulo area and invited her to be one of its partners (the second pillar of the business is Fernando Dourado, the company’s first employee and partner at the Curitiba unit), something she was not able to accept due to a contract with 3Corações.
That, however, did not stop her from getting back to work. I will be one of his clients, as is the Mr. Cheney’s chain and the Santo Grão coffee shops. “Nowadays, once a week, I roast my clients’ coffees in Santo Antônio do Jardim, about 300 km from the capital. As soon as Experientia is ready, I am going to transfer my production there, which is only half an hour away by car. That way, I will be able to stay closer to my daughter, since after giving birth, my concern is to spend as much time as possible with her,” she said.
The roaster will be able to roast 20 metric tons per month of specialty coffees, but will start toasting half of that amount. Of this total, six metric tons will be directed to the Santo Grão coffee shops.
Santuário Sul Project
Magalhães is very excited about another project, the partnership with Carmo Coffee, at the Santuário Sul farm, in southern Minas Gerais, which is in full swing. According to her, the project was created with the goal of being ahead of the market trends. In summary, coffees from different regions of the world are brought to the farm in order to create a new profile of Brazilian specialty coffee. Today, in addition to the traditional Brazilian varieties such as Bourbon Amarelo, the farm features another 30 exotic varieties, allied with unique cultivation practices such as shade growing and other innovative processes. The varieties are planted and monitored closely to offer the best result within the climatic conditions of the region.
Last year, they produced the Sudan Rume and Geisha varieties, roasted by Magalhães and already being marketed on the smcafes.com.br website.
According to Magalhães, this is a crucial project for the specialty coffee market in Brazil, as the new varieties should adapt to different terroirs in Brazil, considerably raising the spectrum of possibilities of new aromas and flavors of the beverage.
“We will have plenty of innovations in the second half of this year. We will be waiting for the harvest of these coffees, respecting their maturation time, which is different from ours,” she concluded.
