Rafael Motta Maggion

I am Rafael Motta Maggion. I was born in 1984 in São Paulo, Brazil. I worked in investment funds in Brazil, but in 2017 I have entered the world of gastronomy as a hobby by doing a beer sommelier course. One thing led to another and eventually I got to know specialty coffee (I did not drink coffee at all, because it felt really bitter to me) and fell in love with it. 

The moment I tasted my first sip of specialty coffee, it became important to me. I wanted to know more, so I trained as a barista and learned the basics of roasting (basic skills) and at the same moment, myself and Bianca, my girlfriend, were moving to Barcelona, and when here, begun to start having trouble in finding all the spots. So we created the map of BARCELONA COFFEE GUIDE!

Definitely! A Brazilian origin that tasted sooo good! The taste remained in my mouth for such a long time, and it was so sweet and pleasant! From that moment on – I never drank anything except specialty coffee.

The specialty coffee routes I take around Barcelona, and also when outside town! Networking is something I have always loved: talking to people – laughing – sipping coffee, of course.

Espresso! I have learned that an espresso is a magnifying glass of the quality of the coffee and the extraction. The body of the extraction for me is great. As I work on a specialty coffee guide in Barcelona, now expanding around the world, it is a very fast way to evaluate the quality of the coffee shop and roaster.

Tough question! Maybe an espresso of competition in CAFEZAL MILANO. I was beginning to make the guide and did not have that experience on cupping coffee, but in my memory it was definitely great. And if I remain in doubt, I can always go back there to taste another sip.

Another tough question. But I am very interested in coffees from Burundi, which I have always found very pleasant. But now with technology, and better ways of production, all the origins have amazing coffees.

Go look two micro roasters of Barcelona that I love: JALEO COFFEE ROASTERS and HARMONY COFFEE ROASTERS. They are very artisanal and roast to perfection, with a lot of love for specialty coffee.

Relationships with people take a long time to build. Our project began small but with constancy. Step by step we could build a great community and database to help even more the specialty coffee lover.

I guess the worst phase has gone. But here in Barcelona, that relies a lot on tourism, the suffering was high! I guess one of the main lessons is this: built a local audience of your business. Build strong businesses with low operating costs, so when something unexpected happens, it is easier to adjust.

The same way as craft beer in California. Achieving great participation in the market, getting a lot of space from commercial coffee, and following the trend of sustainability.

Drinking great coffee, and having our websites become references in the specialty coffee market. Our idea is to facilitate the life of the specialty coffee lover the most possible. To make the transition and the circulation in the specialty coffee market as smooth as possible.

People tend to underestimate what you can do in a year, but overestimate what you can do in a day. Be constant when starting a new project. Time and effort do not have sex appeal, but they are the only reliable path to success.