After countless WhatsApp conversations on screen, we meet
finally the coffee farmer Alexander face to face in Andradas. The small town is beautifully surrounded by green hills and mountains in the state of Minas Gerais. Alexander has just as well brought the whole family; the heavily pregnant wife and the five-year-old daughter. His best friend Luiz must of course also be there with his wife and daughter. In fact, the two friends are married to each other's sisters, so also brothers-in-law.

- We will take you to the farm, but first we have to
eat at our favorite restaurant. We have very proud food traditions here in "Minas", says Alexander. And the food really does not disappoint! But it is specialty coffee that is the main attraction here for us, and that has put the area on the map.

Good and full, we meander along the mountain road in Alexander's pickup truck up to the farm Fazenda Santa Barbara, where his grandfather started coffee production in 1958. At the top there is a view of the valley where a lush coffee plantation spreads out and some small houses in the distance, framed by dense Atlantic rainforest. It is both a wild and beautiful sight!

- When you produce specialty coffee, the area is very important - both where the land is located and what it is surrounded by. The advantage we have is that we are lucky enough to be located at the foot of a volcanic mountain range, Serra do Caracol - which is also the postcard image of the town of Andradas, he says.

It was in the cards for Alexander to become a coffee farmer. The grandfather dealt with milk and coffee, the father switched to just coffee and when he took over he had started to sniff the idea of ​​specialty coffee.

- I discovered this world when I took over
the production. I wanted to improve efficiency and activity and realized that my property had the potential to develop specialty coffee. I had talked to other producers, and often heard about people who did not have good crops and that the coffee was bad for drinking. But on my farm this never happened. So far we had never tried to improve the operation, we only did the basic things, but still the quality of the beans and the cup never decreased. I suspected we had very good crop conditions here.

In the first year, the farm became associated with a membership association for coffee producers in the area, and Alexander had a quality sample of the coffee taken.

-To my surprise, we ended up at 84 points on the cup rating scale without having done anything to improve (specialty coffee must score above 80 points). For example, we dried the coffee in the same way as before, a simple process where we were not particularly careful, says the farmer.

- I thought - let's see what happens if we improve the operation, maybe this will also improve the coffee even more, he says

Alexander's day job was in a bank where he looked after clients in agriculture. He had therefore met many coffee producers through
over the years, and had noticed that each individual was very proud of their crop and many liked to enter competitions and make sure they produced high quality coffee.

-Since I came from a family farm, I had this pride with me. And with specialty coffee, I could also add value. The way I see it, the producers are hostage to pricing, as prices go up and down for raw coffee. As a function of being the weakest link in the chain, we found that it was possible to add value through specialty coffee. By producing better quality coffee, the farmer can price the coffee himself outside the common market. We are not dependent on this price which goes up and down. We don't know why it goes up and down, it's not something we can plan for, he points out.

-So when we improve the quality of the coffee, and sell with direct trade through our partners and stores, we can get a more stable price. This makes production more viable from an economic perspective, says Alexander.

But adding value through producing specialty coffee is not without its challenges:

- Weather and climate change are the biggest challenge. I usually say that we have an "outdoor industry" and we have been through many climate events such as rain frost with sleet. At times these events have held back productions and it can be heartbreaking. We have cried, he admits.

But something that can be prevented to some extent is a good and natural environment, Alexander believes.

- It gives quality to the product.

- We discovered this ourselves. We try to run efficient agriculture with as little impact on the environment around us as possible. We have seen that
benefit of the last 5-10 years. Among other things, we have fenced off the river with the intention that it will recover after being used and polluted. We have also regenerated the forest so that it returns to its original state as much as possible. What is amazing is that after this recovery period we noticed the presence of many wild animal species. We were particularly surprised to see a wolf (lobo guara) which is red-listed in Brazil and on the way to extinction, he says.

- We also have jaguars in the area, large hares and a sea of ​​bird species that have not been seen here for years, he says.

We get to witness this ourselves when we are on a tour around the farm. At the bottom of a row of coffee plants, where the thick, lush forest soon takes over, we notice a fresh footprint in the red soil. - There are cougar footprints, smiles Alexander, and says that it is not the first time they have seen it. Soon after, a colorful, screeching toucan flies right over our heads. Toucans play an important role in spreading palm seeds in the remaining rainforest on Brazil's Atlantic coast, but have disappeared in many places.

Alexander also only uses organic fertilizer from his own compost. - The coffee is not fully organic, but we use as few pesticides as possible and instead prune as much as possible, he says.

Up until now, he has converted 20 percent of his production to specialty coffee, but is on his way to increasing this significantly.

-Achieving 100 percent coffee of this quality is
very difficult, but we plan to improve production as much as possible, says the coffee farmer.

- Our goal is to have the best possible operation and sell our coffee as our own brand here in Brazil and through our direct partners. We also think it is important to offer full traceability of where and how it was produced and to have sustainable production throughout the chain.

-We also want to reach more consumers, especially in Brazil, so that Brazilians themselves can drink coffee that is of high quality.
Traditionally, the coffee they consume here in Brazil is a mixture of impure beans. I would like people to discover the joy of drinking good, high-quality coffee that we produce and have available, he points out

Alexander admits that he himself has a particular type of coffee
is particularly fond of

- My favorite coffee bean is yellow catuai. I like it
best medium burnt. It is a coffee that has clear notes of chocolate and caramel - and an all-rounder that most people really enjoy. It's not a very exotic choice, but it's a very good coffee. That's why people like it.

However, he also finds it exciting to test out new flavours.

-From next year I will be testing a new type of bean - arara. This will be exciting. It is a yellow bean variety, and we have high expectations for it, concludes the coffee farmer.