"Brazilians want to move to Australia and you come to Brazil, Daniel!?," is the question Daniel Hobbs hears everyday at his coffee kiosk in the Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Cidade Nova.
His answer is always the same, he says.
"I laugh, I say I love Rio, I love Brazil and that there are many opportunities here for Australian companies."
With a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Mechatronics) from Deakin University and having worked for large Australia mining companies, Daniel decided to spend his 2007 annual leave in Rio de Janeiro.
“I always wanted to go there and visit,” he says.
He fell in love with Ipanema Beach and 'Carioca' (a person hailing from Rio) lifestyle. After a few trips back and forth, he quit his job and moved permanently to Rio.
It's an uncommon career path, to shift from engineering to being a small business-owning barista, and the transition was a challenging process. He designed and imported his own coffee kiosk, having been inspired to open his own business talking to his friends at home.
"I missed the coffee I had in Melbourne, and I always prepared my coffee the same way I used to prepare in Melbourne," he says. "On Saturdays my expat friends would come for a visit and always ask, 'Why on earth don’t you open your own business?’"
It was during those conversations his business motto, “Brazilian coffee, Australian style”, was born. Indeed, according to Daniel, his coffee is so good it doesn’t need sugar.
Daniel follows the Aussie style of preparing and consuming coffee, which is not only to buy a cup that will get you through the day, but to have a true 'experience' with your espresso. His kiosk offers latte, flat white, double espresso, simple expresso, 'carioca' long coffee, cappuccino, and his specialty the 'Ristretto', a very short nectar-like espresso brewed with little water.
Daniel’s coffee kiosk in Rio Source: Facebook
He sells between 90 and 150 coffees a day.
"I serve exactly the coffee you have in Australia. My specialty is the double espresso, mine is more full-bodied. My espresso comes out in 40 seconds and the ristretto in 25 seconds."
Daniel charges $2 for the espresso and for an extra $0.70 you can have the 'full experience' of a double espresso, which is, in his opinion, how espresso should be taken.
He also credits the success of his business to good service, Australian style.
"In Australia when you go to have coffee, you talk to the owner," he says. "Here in Brazil, this doesn’t exist. In my coffee shop I call customers by name, I know what they are going to do on the weekend, where they work, and they talk directly to me, if they have any problems, they come to talk to me, they know I own it."
His customers also, in gratitude, often bring him bottles of Cachaça (a white spirit distilled from sugarcane juice).
Daniel says Brazilians are direct about their coffee.
"In Brazil, customers order an espresso or cappuccino, and that's it. In Australia cappuccino can be taken with soy milk, it can be extra hot, less hot, flat, with cinnamon, saffron. In Brazil they do not play with my menu. I have plans to introduce and show them what can be made with coffee."
But there is an ingredient that Brazilians often ask for and after some reluctance Daniel says he might add to his menu.
Source: Facebook
"I do not work with vanilla-flavoured whipped cream, known here as Chantilly. But my customers ask for it all the time. Brazilians love Chantilly."
He also tried to introduce the biodegradable takeaway cups so common in Australia, but the idea didn’t take off.
"I bought hundreds of 100% eco cups and I still have them. Brazilians don’t ask for a takeaway cup, they come and sit down, have a coffee on the spot, talk to their friends and leave. This is how they do it."
Daniel says he likes to call himself 'Australioca' these days, in a portmanteau reflecting his increasingly mixed identity.
"I still have a part of me that is ‘gringo’ [slang for any foreigner in Brazil], but now I go to a ‘boteco pé-sujo’ [Carioca slang for a 'dirty-foot pub' where the beer is extra cold] with my friends, sit on a plastic chair at a plastic table.
"Here the beer comes in a 600ml bottle and is shared by everyone, we drink them slowly and after 5 hours sitting, talking and singing samba, you pay your share and walk away.”
'Carioca' long coffee Aussie style Source: Facebook
