It was in 1820 that coffee came into fashion as an alternative to sugar cane – and was grown on huge plantations, like its sweet colleague.

Many immigrants worked in Brazil as coffee growers. However, the debt service for the crossing was tough. German immigrants defended themselves against this in 1856. When the passage for coffee growers became free of charge, more than one million people came to Brazil between 1844 and 1914, in order to make their fortune with coffee.

With the founding of the Republic of Brazil, coffee production experienced a boom, as never before – it trebled within three years. 1900 in the state of Sao Paolo alone, around 500 million coffee trees thrived.