Brazil, 1970’s
The story of Zoé Coffee has its beginnings in a small port town in Brazil in the 1970s.
At an early age, a young boy had just become the head of his household. At 16, he gave up school and headed to the port where he cleaned salt off ships, and carried sacks of coffee to support his family.
Sometimes working more than 20 hours a day to make ends meet, he stood out amongst the rest of the workers for his maturity and diligence. Over time, he was observed by a manager of one of the biggest coffee exports, who decided to take him under his wing and train him to become a coffee trader.
To the manager’s amazement and delight, the young man was a brilliant negotiator who happened to possess one of the finest palettes for coffee tasting he had ever seen.
The young man was Mr. José Eudes, the father of one of our partners.
Mr. José Eudes rose rapidly through the company. For 40 stellar years, he traveled across Brazil, driving to all the major coffee regions and visiting the finest coffee plantations, where he would forecast crop productions
United Arab Emirates, 2010’s
Many years later, when our co-founders Adriano and Cynthia Silva were leaving Brazil for the UAE, Mr. José Eudes lovingly packed many kilos of coffee that he had personally chosen and roasted, to remind them of home.
Good coffee is meant to be shared. One day, Adriano and Cynthia were invited to a close Emirati friend’s home and gifted him some of these specialty beans. When our friend Mohamed Al Shamsi tried the beans, he knew it was something special, something not available in the local market. Soon he could no longer go out for his favorite beverage, and was brewing the gifted beans at home.
Mohammed has been a steadfast supporter in our early journey and encouraged us to finally enter the coffee business. Thus, Zoé Coffee was born, bringing one of the finest selections of coffee you will most likely encounter to the heart of the UAE.
Zoé Coffee 