We drove an hour south of São Paulo to the harbor city of Santos to check out the Coffee Museum. We were lucky to miss the holiday traffic of Paulistanos fleeing to the beach and got to enjoy the spectacular drive down through protected forests that look the same now as they did to Magellan, but that’s another post. After some wandering around town we finally found the museum.
And wouldn’t you know they serve an excellent cup of coffee right there in the lobby of the former coffee exchange building next to the ‘big board’ where the prices of coffee futures were posted.
the trading board from Brazil's first futures market
Museum Technical Director, Marilia Bonas Conte, walked us around the displays of coffee paraphernalia (roasters, grinders, cups. . . what you would expect) and gave an excellent off-the-cuff running commentary on the history of coffee and Brazil’s history in terms of coffee. She also described plans for the museum’s expansion to include displays on coffee’s pharmacology and the genome of the coffee plant itself.
Sadly, she debunked my favorite story of how coffee seeds first came to Brazil as gifts to a Brazilian rogue from the French colonial governor’s wife he was having an affair with. But I guess dispelling myths is a good museum’s mission. Would that all my tour guides knew their subjects as well as Marilia does. . . the guide who described the ancient Roman emperors rail network around North Africa leaps to mind.
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