Augusto Carvalho Dias Carneiro co-owner of Nossa Familia Coffee -- which was founded in 2006 and is the only family-traded coffee in Portland -- grew up in Rio de Janeiro but spent holidays on his family's farm eight hours west of Brazil's capital. According to Augusto that's where most of his childhood memories are. Some of the fondest include early morning horseback rides with his grandpa and his grandpa's friends through the coffee fields.
These days Augusto who's lived in Portland since 1996 still likes to ride around his family's sixth generation Brazilian farm. He just has different transportation now -- his bicycle. Augusto is a cycle enthusiast and has made a couple trips to the farm with fellow mountain biking friends. (The last time I saw Augusto he was setting up a coffee booth at a cycle event at the Washington County Fairplex in Hillsboro the same weekend as the Home Orchard Society's All About Fruit Show.) Of course anytime Augusto returns home now -- usually once or twice a year -- there's plenty of work to be done.
Although Nossa doesn't roast its own bean (another Portland roasting company roasts for them) Augusto hopes to in the near future. Nossa currently imports about five percent of the farm's Brazilian coffee -- about 80,000 pounds a year -- so there's plenty of room for growth in more ways than one.
In the summer of 2009 Nossa Familia opened a café at the non-profit Ethos Music Center on North Killingsworth that serves Nossa Familia Coffee, tea and snacks. In addition to the café you can find Nossa Familia Coffee at all New Seasons Markets, People's Food Co-op, Food Front Cooperative Grocery, the Hollywood and Lents Farmers Markets and other locations around town.
Nossa Familia Cafe at Ethos 2 North Killingsworth St. www.familyroast.com Hours: Monday-Friday 8am-6pm Saturday 10am-3pm