Brazil - Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza (FAF)

Multifaceted organic farm blazing the way forward with sustainability practices and ethos.

When Amy was living in Paris in 2011, she met some new friends from Brazil who were studying soil science and piqued her interest in specialty coffee (refer to Repetition’s origin story).  After returning to the U.S. she attended the Specialty Coffee Association event in 2014, volunteering for the Brazilian Coffee Association BSCA.  It was at this event that she met the incredible FAF family: Silvia Barretto, her husband Marcos Croce, their son Felipe, and their daughter Rita. 

 Silvia & Marcos           

The FAF land has been in the Barretto family since 1850, and upon inheriting the farm in 2001, Silvia changed the name to Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza FAF (meaning Environmental Fortress Farm) and began the process of turning the entire operation organic.  Initially, the transition to organic drastically reduced production, as the farm's plants suffered from the abrupt termination of chemicals.  In 2007 Marcos exported his first coffee container directly to the United States and put FAF on the map.  The next year, FAF won the sustainability award from the Specialty Coffee Association of America.  Silvia's son, Felipe, set up a coffee lab and began separating and studying lots of varietals and processing methods.  As a result of their dedicated work, many roasters began following FAF and came to visit to see what they were doing. Today FAF is a farm, a network of farmers, a center of coffee studies, and an export company that mills and ships coffee worldwide.  You can read more about their operation at www.fafbrazil.com. 

                              

Amy first visited the FAF farm in 2015 with other coffee buyers and was instantly inspired by the experience.  Looking out over a valley, the FAF family told their story of cleaning up the farm's water sources and incentivizing neighboring farmers to convert to organic as well. From the moment she stepped foot on the property, Amy was treated like family.  Everything that was cooked and prepared came directly from the farm – honey, milk, cheese, pine nuts as big as your thumbnail, EVERYTHING.  She left feeling rejuvenated! That first visit to FAF set the standard and ethos for how to run a business sustainably. It was important to practice sustainability, not just ecologically, but socially and economically as well; this standard affects buying decisions at Repetition to this day. 

The dedication from Silvia and her family has resulted in an umbrella of smaller coffee growers and farmers who are able to sell their coffee with FAF.  While their flagship coffee is the Bob-o-Link, their offerings include reserves and micro-lots that Repetition has been lucky enough to carry throughout the years.  Keep an eye on our offerings, and if they come from Brazil, they are guaranteed to come from our friends at FAF Brazil.