If you drive deep into the countryside of Northeastern Brazil, you will find mist-covered mountains called the Borboremas.  Within this mountain range, 3,000 feet up a winding road, you’ll find our coffee farm.

Each December, the coffee flowers blossom and the whole mountain smells like perfume.  Native honeybees fly from flower to flower, pollinating our coffee plants and giving us a plentiful harvest.  In June the rains come.  Tree frogs croak and the rain clangs on our roof tiles, and we wait for  the coffee beans to turn red. 

Then the picking season starts.  Each day at dawn, an orchestra of songbirds stir us from sleep.  Tribes of Saguin monkeys nibble on guava fruits and watch as our team of pickers move through the farm.  In September the sun returns, and we set our coffee beans out to dry.  We select our biggest and best beans in November and ship them to the Unites States where they are roasted fresh each day.  In December, the process begins again.

“Sombra” is the Portuguese word for shade, and for the past century, shade-coffee has grown in harmony with the native flora and fauna on our family farm.  At Café Sombra, we cultivate coffee and nurture the life that surrounds it.

Quality every step of the way

At Café Sombra, we cultivate excellence by ensuring quality in every step of the coffee process.  We grow Arabica coffee trees.  We generate Specialty-caliber green coffee by picking only mature cherries and performing our own drying and quality processing. 

We roast our beans on demand, only roasting small batches to ensure freshness and preserve our beans’ rich flavor.  And our coffee is certified by the Rainforest Alliance and Quality Certification Services.

Why Shade-Grown?

Shade coffee tastes better.  Shade coffee beans are like a fine, aged wine—they mature slowly because they are in partial sunlight.  This slow maturation allows the beans’ natural sugars and flavors to fully develop before the bean is picked.

Shade coffee is ecologically better.  Each fall, millions of birds migrate from North America to areas south of the equator.  Shade coffee farms provide important “stepping stones” and rest stops for these migratory birds.  Shade farms also allow native species of birds, plants, reptiles, insects, and mammals to live and grow in their natural habitat. 

Micro-batch Roasting—Fresher taste, Richer Flavor

Coffee tastes best within the two weeks after it is roasted.  At Café Sombra, we roast your coffee the moment you order it.  This ensures freshness and preserves flavor.