Henrique's Corner

My name is Henrique do Valle. I grew up in Santa Rita, a small town in the Mantiqueira de Minas region of Brazil. The hills around us were covered with coffee farms (fazendas) where families had been growing coffee for generations. At those altitudes, the cooler air and fertile soil produce something special.

Most farms in the region use the natural processing method, drying the beans inside the fruit under the sun. It gives the coffee a sweetness and full body you can taste in every cup. The varieties grown across those hillsides are Red Catuai and Yellow Catuai, both sturdy and well-suited to the terrain. The red and yellow refer to the color of the cherry when it ripens. Both were the beans I grew up drinking.

Coffee in Santa Rita wasn't just a drink. It was a cafezinho shared with neighbors, brewed strong and sweet on the stove, part of the daily rhythm. That care, the connection, shaped how I think about coffee.

When I moved to Brooklyn, I started seeking out the shops that reminded me of that feeling: places where the coffee is made with intention, where you can taste the origin. I built brooklyncoffeeshops.com to share those discoveries. Below are my personal picks, the spots I keep coming back to.