by Molly Vincent |
While students still look forward to the early morning smell of slightly burnt bagels coming from the Franz Hall basement, they can now anticipate a local coffee brand to accompany it. This school year, the coffee has changed from Starbucks to a local brand, Nossa Familia, whose motto is “Good People, Great History, Amazing Coffee.”
UP alumnus Augusto Carneiro is the founder and CEO of Nossa Familia, which has a roastery and espresso bar in the Pearl District.
The switch came after Carneiro approached Bon Appetit supervisor Kirk Mustain. Mustain, also an alumnus, makes an effort to support UP alumni who are cultivating entrepreneurial business and agreed to the proposal for the Franz basement coffee shop change. Nossa Familia coffee had been used campus-wide from 2006-2010 but the company was too small to sustain service for the entire campus. According to Mustain, Nossa Familia has grown substantially since then.
“Augusto has done really well with it,” Mustain said.
Mustain realized that not all students and faculty want to drink Starbucks’ stronger, more acidic coffee, and Nossa Familia creates some variety in the UP coffee scene. He thought Franz would be the perfect start for Nossa Familia, while keeping Starbucks in The Commons. In addition to being served in Franz, Nossa Familia is also being served in The Anchor this year.
“Nossa Familia is a more traditional roast,” Mustain said. “It’s less acidic.”
UP will offer three different coffee brands this year: Starbucks in The Commons, Nossa Familia in Franz and The Anchor and Stumptown in the Pilot House.
Carneiro and Nossa Familia value quality, social responsibility and relationships over everything—values that align with those of the UP community. They also feel a need to conserve the environment while using an environmentally friendly coffee roaster that reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. It also captures roast data and profiles.
Knowing UP’s focus on high quality, sustainable food, Carneiro felt Nossa Familia would be a good match.
“We know Bon Appetit stands for good products,” Carneiro said. “Independent of Bon Appetit, UP is my alma matter. Financially it’s a win-win.”
Carneiro originally came to UP in 1996 from Brazil to play tennis and entered the Shiley School of Engineering. Following graduation in 2001, he was not enthralled by his engineering job and wanted to make a change. Instead of continuing, he got the idea to start a coffee business in Portland.
He had spent his youth in Brazil on his family’s coffee farm, which the family had been working since his great-grandfather planted a coffee crop in 1890. The farm, which is located in “Sul de Minas” in the Brazilian highlands, provided the resources that would be the base of his new company.
Carneiro is now focused on training employees to make better coffee, and he plans to install better machines in the future. He hopes to cater more to students by holding coffee tastings at UP at the end of the month.
Nossa Familia has received positive feedback from students.
Junior Alejandra Galindo, a self-proclaimed coffee addict, likes the change.
“It has a pretty good taste for coffee on campus: not too bitter,” Galindo said.
Galindo also thinks Nossa Familia will appeal to people who do not drink coffee because it is not as strong as other brands. Molly Vincent is a reporter for The Beacon. She can be reached at vincentm17@up.edu.
