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.