Specialty Coffee Wiki

Henrique Sloper

Properties3
descriptionThe third-generation Brazilian producer who runs Camocim Estate in Espírito Santo — winner of Cup of Excellence Brazil Naturals 2017 at 93.60 points and $90.20 a pound, and the man behind Jacu Bird coffee.
tagsperson, producer, brazil, espirito-santo, biodynamic, organic, cup-of-excellence
aliasesHenrique Sloper Araújo, Henrique Leivas Sloper de Araújo, Henrique Leivas Sloper de Araujo

8 min read

Henrique Sloper

Henrique Sloper — full name Henrique Leivas Sloper de Araújo on competition records — is a Brazilian coffee producer who runs Camocim Estate, a forest-grown organic and biodynamic farm in Pedra Azul, Domingos Martins, Espírito Santo, Brazil.12

Two things put him on this wiki. He produced the coffee that won Cup of Excellence Brazil Naturals in 2017 at 93.60 points, selling at US$90.20 a pound — one of the highest prices a Brazilian coffee has ever fetched.12 And he built a business out of a bird: Jacu Bird coffee, made from cherries a wild Atlantic Forest bird picks off the trees, sold in Brazil as the most expensive coffee in the country.3

He is the grandson of Olivar de Araújo, the businessman who bought the property in 1962 and turned it toward organic farming; a September 2025 Brazilian trade profile describes the farm and the family legacy as being “today in Henrique’s hands,” and calls him a producer and a trader.3

What he actually did

The farm he inherited was in Conilon country — Espírito Santo is Brazil’s Robusta state — and Brazil’s national model is flat ground, machine harvest and volume. Sloper went the other way: coffee planted inside standing Atlantic Forest, no pesticides, hand-picked, and managed on biodynamic cycles, certified organic by IBD and biodynamic by Demeter.1

That decision produced both of his claims to fame. Forest left standing means wild birds live in it, and the jacu — a large forest guan — eats the ripest cherries off the trees. Rather than treat the birds as a pest, Sloper turned what they leave behind into a super-premium product.3 The same farming also, on one harvest from a plot at 1,250–1,300 m, produced a 93.60-point coffee.1

The full story of the farm, the bird and the disputes over its numbers lives in Camocim Estate.

Competition record

YearCompetitionRankScoreProcessPrice
12017Cup of Excellence Brazil Naturals1A93.60NaturalUS$90.20/lb2
22017Cup of Excellence Brazil Naturals1B93.60NaturalUS$80.30/lb2
32019Cup of Excellence Brazil2187.68Pulped naturalUS$8.00/lb4

Both 2017 lots are recorded by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence as the variety Catucaí Açu – IAPAR 59, which matters because IAPAR 59 is the one member of the Sarchimor rust-resistant family that the World Coffee Research catalogue rates lowest for cup quality.1

The 2019 result is the honest counterweight: same producer, same farm, same stated variety, a different plot and a different process — and a completely ordinary 21st place.4 A score belongs to a lot, not to a name.

To verify — the "94 points" figure

Several secondary write-ups, and a Portuguese-language podcast interview with Sloper himself, give his 2017 Cup of Excellence coffee as 94 points.56 The Alliance for Coffee Excellence’s own auction record, read directly here, gives 93.60 — and the 93.60 figure also appears on ACE’s farm-directory entry for the lot.12 93.60 is the number on the primary record. Treat 94 as rounding or retelling, not as a result.

The same podcast describes the win as first place “in the choice of the best coffee in the world, ahead of producers from Colombia, Guatemala and Indonesia.”6 The 2017 result on record is a national competition — Cup of Excellence Brazil Naturals — not a global one.2 Cup of Excellence has no single worldwide ranking.

To verify — when he took over, and from whom

The year is not settled. One roaster’s origin story says he inherited the farm in 1996; several European roaster and importer pages say he has been managing it since 1999.578 ACE’s farm record dates the planting of 300,000 coffee trees to 1999 without naming a handover year.1 The September 2025 profile says “29 years having passed” alongside the family story, which points at 1996, but does not state a takeover date outright.3 Legal inheritance and start of active management may simply be different dates — that is an inference, not something any source says.

His grandfather’s full name is given two ways. The September 2025 profile names him Olivar Fontenelle de Araújo; this wiki’s Camocim Estate note records Olivar Sloper de Araújo.3 The first name and the 1962 purchase are consistent everywhere; the middle name is not.

To verify — the BSCA presidency

Sloper is widely described as a former president of the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA), including on roaster pages and in the research behind this note.578 Roaster and importer copy about a farm is normally supplied by the producer, so this is one claim repeated rather than several sources agreeing. BSCA’s own site, checked here, publishes no list of past presidents, and no association document confirming a term was found. Stated here as a claim, not a fact.

Who buys his coffee

Camocim’s coffee reaches specialty roasters in Europe, the United States and Australia, sold on the biodynamic and forest story rather than on the auction score — the direct channel rather than the auction one.789 Lots carrying Sloper’s own first name appear on Kaffeemacher’s menu in Switzerland and Germany as both espresso and green coffee, and That Coffee Company in Australia sells a Camocim Red Bourbon under his full name.910

To verify — what those lots actually are

Roaster listings disagree about processing and variety on the coffees sold under his name. Kaffeemacher describes its “Henrique” espresso as pulped natural (honey) and its green coffee under the same name as depulped and washed; That Coffee Company’s “Henrique Sloper Organic Red Bourbon” is listed as natural.910 These are different lots in different years rather than a contradiction, most likely — but no source ties a lot to a harvest year, and Red Bourbon does not appear on either ACE record for the farm, which lists only Catucaí Açu – IAPAR 59.14 No retail or wholesale price for any of these lots is published in a form that could be read here.

Why he matters

Sloper is the standing counterexample to the Brazilian coffee story. Brazil is the world’s volume producer — enormous, flat, mechanised, priced off the C-market. He runs a steep, forested, hand-picked farm in the “wrong” state for Arabica, sells on certification and biodiversity, and holds one of the highest Cup of Excellence prices the country has recorded.

He is also a useful case in how a premium gets built. The 93.60 was one harvest. The business that outlived it is the bird, the forest and the certificates — an argument a roaster can print on a bag, repeated every year.

He has no personal website or public professional page found here; the farm’s site is his web presence, and it does not carry a biography of him.

Footnotes

  1. Alliance for Coffee Excellence — farm directory: Fazenda Camocim 2017, 93.60 — confirmed via WebFetch; the primary record naming “Henrique Leivas Sloper de Araujo” as producer, with the 93.60 score, Domingos Martins location, Catucaí Açu–IAPAR variety, 1,250–1,300 masl, 160 ha / 70 ha under coffee, and the organic / biodynamic certifications ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  2. Alliance for Coffee Excellence — Cup of Excellence Brazil Naturals 2017 results — confirmed via WebFetch; the auction record giving 93.60 for both the 1A and 1B lots at US90.20 and US80.30 per pound, against 92.37 and US$30.60 for second place ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Café Cotação — Conheça a Fazenda Camocim, que produz o café mais caro do Brasil (28 September 2025) — confirmed via WebFetch; source of “producer and trader,” the farm being in Henrique’s hands today, the grandfather named Olivar Fontenelle de Araújo and the 1962 purchase, and the R$1,600/kg Jacu Bird figure ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. Alliance for Coffee Excellence — farm directory: Fazenda Camocim, 87.68 — ACE’s record of the Brazil 2019 pulped natural entry at 980 masl, same stated variety ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. 8phase Coffee — Our Story — roaster origin story; source of the 1996 inheritance date and the BSCA-presidency claim ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Podcast #75 — Henrique Sloper, Fazenda Camocim (YouTube) — Portuguese-language interview with Sloper; source of the “94 points” and “best coffee in the world” retellings, and of the ~1,200 m and raised-bed drying description ↩ ↩2

  7. Kaffee Stehl — Brazil Camocim — European importer listing; source of the “managing since 1999” and BSCA-presidency framing ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Linea Caffe — Brazil Camocim Biodynamic — US roaster listing repeating the biodynamic and BSCA-presidency framing ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  9. Kaffeemacher — Henrique, espresso from Brazil — Swiss/German roaster listing selling espresso and green coffee under his first name ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. That Coffee Company — Henrique Sloper Organic Red Bourbon — Australian retailer listing the Red Bourbon natural lot under his full name ↩ ↩2

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