Brazilian Museum Brings the History and Flavor of the Nation’s Coffee Culture to Life- Santos, Brazil
What is it – Brazil has a 500-year history of blending the peoples and history of many nations into one vibrant culture. The medium sized port city of Santos founded by the Portuguese in 1535, located on the coast to the southeast of Sao Paulo, is best known for two things. First, Santos is the city where the sports legend Pele played numerous matches for the local team before going on to glory by winning three World Cups for Brazil and serving as the nation’s Minister of Sports. Second, it served for centuries as an important center for the processing, auctioning, and exportation of coffee around the world. By the late 1800s, Santos’ rail connections and huge docks allowed it to process a large volume of coffee brought from the nearby mountains. The wealthy coffee barons who controlled this trade collaborated in turning an elegant Victorian mansion into a stock exchange, record center, and auction house for their business operations. Eventually the Official Coffee Exchange closed its doors and the surrounding neighborhood fell on hard times when the coffee business relocated to Sao Paulo in the 1950s. Eventually, Brazil’s Department of Culture and the local community decided to create a coffee museum in the city to commemorate the important role of coffee in the country’s development and the former Coffee Exchange building opened in 1998.
What You Will See There- There are several interesting exhibits and experiences to enjoy at the Coffee Museum:
Story of Coffee- The historical section of the museum tells the story of the development of the coffee industry in Brazil through the experiences of the varied people involved in the cultivation and sale of those special beans. Ironically, the first plant cuttings that laid the foundation for the business were imported or smuggled into Brazil from French Guiana. Similarly, many of the workers who performed the difficult labor on the plantations were immigrants from Europe and Japan, and others were African slaves. Large pictures are combined with samples of the documents, machinery, equipment, and tools used to process coffee products to illustrate the distribution process and the benefits it brought to the community.
Trading Floor - The trading floor was the center place of the exchange since it was where traders negotiated the daily price for coffee and bid on orders. Surrounded by a mezzanine on all sides, people can look down on the ornate hall which included eighty-one carved walnut chairs for the coffee brokers and exchange officers on a raised platform. The room has an art deco design to it and features a stain glassed skylight with scenes of Brazil above, an indented marble floor, and paintings of Santos on the wall from a celebrated Brazilian artist.
Coffee Shop – The museum’s coffee shop opened in 2000 and is popular with visitors. You can purchase a wide variety of beverages made with coffee as well as beans from the rarest and most expensive coffees in the country. At times, the museum offers courses for baristas to explain different types of coffees and how to prepare them.
Interesting Facts - The reverence shown for coffee in Santos is matched by the admiration which city residents have for Pele and the Santos football club. There are tours available in Santos that take soccer fans to locations where Pele lived, trained, and played during his career including Vila Belmiro Stadium and the trophy room honoring the team’s accomplishments and Pele’s awards.
When to Go – Since Brazil is south of the equator, November to April are the warmest months to visit Santos because temperatures are in the high eighties. This makes the beaches and the water better for swimming then, but there is also more humidity during these months and rain is more frequent. Visiting the air-conditioned museum during the heat of the day may provide some relief from the heat. Otherwise, site sightseeing in Santos is most enjoyable between May and late September when temperatures are in the high seventies during the day and in the 60s at night and there are fewer rainy days.