Marcelo Assis Nogueira

About the Coffee

Marcelo Assis Nogueira and Flavio Marcio Silva met in 2001, both from farming families in the Cerrado region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Marcelo had just finished agricultural school; Flavio brought experience managing family agribusiness. They formed a partnership and, in 2010, started their first farm together under the name Bioma Café, focused on specialty coffee production in the Campos Altos region. The name itself reflects their core intention: farming in balance with the Cerrado biome, one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in South America.

Finding the right land took time. Marcelo and Flavio evaluated multiple properties before settling on a site in the high plateaus of Cerrado Mineiro, where the elevation and climate are well-suited to specialty coffee. The farm grows the Paraíso and Arara varietals, both known for producing dense, heavy-bodied coffee under natural processing (where the whole fruit dries around the bean, concentrating sweetness before the outer layers are removed).

This is the fourth consecutive year Traffic has purchased coffee from Marcelo and Flavio, a relationship that has only deepened with time. Repeat buying like this is how small farms plan ahead, invest in quality, and keep the best lots reserved for roasters they trust.

About Traffic

Traffic Coffee was founded by Greg Lancot and Jessie Lewin in Montréal. Both came from creative backgrounds and wanted to build a roastery where the coffee could stand on its own without being reduced to a caffeine commodity. The branding is bold and unconventional on purpose: vivid colors, offbeat illustrations, each bag visually distinct. The idea was that coffee should feel like something worth paying attention to.

Traffic roasts in small batches and works directly with farmers on an ongoing basis. Their sourcing philosophy sits at two ends of a deliberate spectrum: either letting a varietal express itself with minimal intervention, or leaning into experimental processing techniques. The Marcelo Assis Nogueira lot fits squarely in the first category, a naturally processed coffee sourced from a farm they keep coming back to year after year.

"Traffic's breadth of coffee is remarkable - from dark roasts reminiscent of your grandmother's kitchen, to wild co-ferments with tasting notes we admittedly have to look up. The packaging and the coffee inside is meant to captivate you, and I hope you feel the same when you try this coffee."

- Dean, Director of Coffee