Brazil is, by far, the world’s largest producer in the lucrative coffee market. But there is a dark history behind the country’s dominance: slavery.

It was enslaved Africans who cleared the land, planted the coffee, and built the infrastructure on plantations that still operate today. It is a history few Brazilians recognize in an industry that, even after emancipation, excluded Afro Brazilian participation. 

But three years ago, a young entrepreneur decided to take the matter into his own hands and begin to make a change in the market.