Imported from Thailand, Black Ivory coffee arrives in Brazil for a small fortune — at the Black Ivory Coffee Company’s online store, a 35-gram packet, enough for just four cups of espresso, costs R$674.
But you don’t even have to go that far to find triple-digit coffee. At the Brazilian e-commerce Café Store, the 100-gram package of Jacu Bird, produced in the Caparaó region, between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, costs R$116.80.
The two have one thing in common: they naturally ferment as they pass through the digestive system of animals and promise greater aromatic complexity.
That’s right, you didn’t read it wrong. Black Ivory beans are eaten and defecated by elephants before reaching the consumer’s cup, while Jacu Bird beans serve as food and are properly “uneaten” by the jacu bird.
Coffee geeks, as coffee aficionados are called, are behind this curious niche market made up of eccentricities and stratospheric prices.
“It’s an affordable luxury. Even those who can’t pay for a kilo of coffee can do something crazy and pay for a cup at the cafeteria”, says Caio Alonso Fontes, founder of the Café Store and organizer of the São Paulo Coffee Festival.
The wave of exotic coffees began about 15 years ago, when the Indonesian coffee Kopi Luwak arrived in Brazil. The beans, which pass through the digestive system of a small mammal called a civet, were sold by coffee shops for gold weight. But they gave up.
“Complaints of mistreatment have arisen, producers raising animals in captivity and subjecting them to overfeeding in order to have scale production. Pato Rei cafeteria, in São Paulo.
The unfavorable exchange rate and the increasingly common counterfeits contributed to the loss of ground for imported exotic coffees. Brazilian producers have wasted no time and are rushing to occupy the space — many have invested in offering rarities that look good at international auctions.
There are several factors that elevate a coffee to this level. At the top of the list is the eccentricity of the production process, as is the case with the Jacu Bird.
Owner of Fazenda Camocim, responsible for the product, Henrique Sloper has 80 hectares planted. From 1 ton of grain harvested per day, between April and September, only 20 kg are collected from the ground, after being defecated by the jacus.
“Because it is an agroforestry area, I don’t have birds in captivity. They live free and I have no control over what they eat”, he explains.
Achieving high scores and prizes in competitions is also guaranteed to inflate the price of coffee in international auctions.
In the 11 annual editions of the Cup of Excellence, promoted by the Brazilian Association of Specialty Coffees (BSCA), the historic record is held by Gabriel Nunes, from Nunes Coffee. In 2017, he sold six bags of double-fermented Yellow Bourbon at US$19,500 each, equivalent to just over R$100,000 per bag at current exchange rates.
No one was able to taste the delicacy in Brazil, as the six bags were bought by buyers from Japan and Australia – another reality that is slowly beginning to change. There are more and more Brazilian producers willing to reserve a slice of their prized lots for the local market.
For Gelma Franco, a regular at auctions since the Il Barista coffee shop opened in 2003, the main transformation took place at the end of the chain, that is, in the behavior of Brazilians, who learned to appreciate and value specialty coffees.
“In the past, when I was interested in some award-winning coffee and was willing to buy it, no one understood. The producers themselves argued that there was no market in Brazil, that I would not be able to sell it to anyone”, he recalls.
Today, the scenario is different — the national market has not only established itself but also tends to grow. This is the bet of the owner of Pato Rei, which debuted in the world of international auctions in October 2021.
Tiago de Mello paid BRL 30,000, taxes and freight included, for a single bag of grain from the Daterra farm, grown in Patrocínio (MG). The blend of the Aramosa and Laurina varieties is part of the Masterpieces line, which includes only the best-rated experimental batches from Daterra.
In January 2022, when the coffee arrived at the cafeteria, packages of 100 grams were offered for sale for R$160. Mello also created two experiences for those who wanted to taste it there: one at R$32 and the other at R$48. .
“I froze a part of the batch in vacuum packaging, thinking that, because it is so expensive for us and for the public, this coffee would last about five years in the store. But it’s already running out. I think Brazilian coffee shops can even dare more”, celebrate.
Daring, in this case, means competing with big competitors with high firepower. To give you an idea, Harrods, a luxury magazine in the English capital, sells the 250-gram package of Jacu Bird for 350 pounds sterling, the equivalent of R$2,100 reais.
“Outside, it is a product for those who eat truffles and drink Romanée-Conti”, compares the producer, who directs 80% of his production to export.
Founder of exporter Latitudes Coffees, Edgard Bressani confirms coffee’s vocation for the international luxury market. “Dior has a project to sell coffee inside the stores and there are coffee shops in Paris charging 15 euros for a cup of espresso or strained”, he exemplifies.
In Brazil, the market configuration is different. The award-winning coffees don’t cost that much and haven’t become designer items yet, but they are too expensive to frequent supermarket shelves. The way to acquire them is to frequent sophisticated emporiums, specialized online stores or make direct contact with the producers.
Coffee growers from Franca (SP), the Minamihara family opens a coffee shop on their own farm this week. The brand, famous among coffee geeks for providing coffees to Naruhito, Emperor of Japan, will welcome visitors with tours of the farm and tastings of rare microlots, which exceed 90 points.
“Bringing people to the farm is what makes the difference. When I receive foreign buyers, I can sell the coffee at auction prices”, attests to the descendant of Japanese Anderson Minamihara, fourth generation in charge of the property, which allocates 3% of the crop to direct sales to the consumer.
The coming months promise – this is precisely the time of year when coffee geeks direct their antennas to the main producing regions of the country. The farms, which have finished or are finishing their harvests, are already separating their best lots for the contests.
According to Vinicius Estrela, president of BSCA, the expectation is that 800 samples will be submitted to the judges of the Cup of Excellence – in 2021, there were 600. The initial price for the champions, in this year’s auctions, will be R$ 3,760 per bag. . But the sky is the limit. Last year, for example, there was a bag being sold for R$ 50 thousand.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
