A Taste of Brazil in Fin­land: An Inter­view with Ger­lân­dia Bar­ros.

Ger­lân­dia Bar­ros stands behind the counter of her café, Sam­ba Café, sur­round­ed by the rich aro­mas of Brazil­ian cof­fee and the invit­ing scent of fresh­ly baked pas­tries. With a warm smile, she wel­comes cus­tomers, seam­less­ly blend­ing the flavours of her home­land with the Finnish culi­nary land­scape. We sat down with her to dis­cuss her path from For­t­aleza, Brazil, to open­ing the first Brazil­ian café in Fin­land.

Can you tell us about your back­ground and what brought you to Fin­land?

I’m orig­i­nal­ly from For­t­aleza, Ceará, Brazil. The first time we came to live in Fin­land was in 2007 for study and work. We spent a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time here before return­ing to live in Brazil. How­ev­er, in Jan­u­ary 2019, we decid­ed to move back to Fin­land for the tran­quil­li­ty and qual­i­ty of edu­ca­tion.

While in Brazil, I opened a cof­fee shop in São João da Boa Vista, São Paulo. Now, I am excit­ed to con­tin­ue pur­su­ing my dream here in Fin­land. Sam­ba Café is a way to share Brazil­ian cul­ture through food.

What inspired you to pur­sue gas­tron­o­my, espe­cial­ly after mov­ing to Fin­land?

My inspi­ra­tion to pur­sue gas­tron­o­my, espe­cial­ly after mov­ing to Fin­land, comes from two pas­sions I’ve always had: a love for culi­nary arts and a dri­ve for entre­pre­neur­ship. From an ear­ly age, I saw gas­tron­o­my as a pow­er­ful form of con­nec­tion, capa­ble of bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er and telling sto­ries through fla­vors. At the same time, I’ve always had an entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it and a desire to cre­ate some­thing of my own, to share a piece of Brazil wher­ev­er I go.

When I opened my first café in Brazil, I was able to unite these two pas­sions, and that expe­ri­ence was trans­for­ma­tive. Mov­ing to Fin­land, I real­ized I had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring our cul­ture and authen­tic fla­vors to a diverse audi­ence, cre­at­ing some­thing inno­v­a­tive in a mul­ti­cul­tur­al set­ting. At Sam­ba Café, every dish rep­re­sents this blend of cul­ture, tra­di­tion, and the desire to cre­ate unique experiences.

This project allows me to share Brazil not only with Finns but also with Brazil­ians and peo­ple from var­i­ous parts of the world who live here, cre­at­ing a sense of belong­ing in a dis­tant coun­try. Every day, see­ing Brazil­ians, Finns, and peo­ple from oth­er coun­tries enjoy­ing our cui­sine is what moti­vates me to keep going and expand this mis­sion.

What were the steps you took to open Sam­ba Café?

After return­ing to Brazil for a year, I began devel­op­ing my vision for Sam­ba Café. The first step was con­duct­ing thor­ough mar­ket research to under­stand local culi­nary pref­er­ences, with a spe­cial focus on gluten- and lac­tose-free options, as these are in high demand in Fin­land. Draw­ing from my expe­ri­ence in Brazil and insights gained from work­ing in Finnish hos­pi­tal­i­ty, I designed a con­cept that would res­onate with a diverse audi­ence.

The plan­ning phase took about a year, dur­ing which I refined the menu, ensur­ing it includ­ed authen­tic Brazil­ian flavours while meet­ing local dietary needs. I also focused on find­ing a suit­able loca­tion, sup­pli­ers, and build­ing a net­work with­in the local food indus­try. Final­ly, when every­thing was in place, I opened the café, inte­grat­ing every­thing I’d learned to cre­ate a wel­com­ing, cul­tur­al­ly rich space. Each of these steps helped bring Sam­ba Café to life and posi­tioned it as a unique cul­tur­al expe­ri­ence in the local com­mu­ni­ty.

What chal­lenges did you face dur­ing the process of open­ing your café in Fin­land?

Oh, there were cer­tain­ly many chal­lenges! The bureau­cra­cy in Fin­land is quite exten­sive. I had to sub­mit detailed doc­u­men­ta­tion, includ­ing infor­ma­tion about the types of cof­fee I would serve and the expect­ed num­ber of cus­tomers. Before final­iz­ing a rental agree­ment, I need­ed to noti­fy the envi­ron­men­tal con­trol author­i­ties and sub­mit a floor plan for approval, which added extra steps and time to the process.

In Brazil, I had more sup­port and famil­iar­i­ty with the process, which made it smoother. Here, I had to nav­i­gate many unfa­mil­iar aspects on my own, from reg­u­la­tions to under­stand­ing local require­ments, and that was quite daunt­ing. But each chal­lenge, in the end, helped me adapt, learn, and build Sam­ba Café on a sol­id foun­da­tion in Fin­land.

How does your edu­ca­tion­al back­ground play a role in your café’s oper­a­tions?

I hold a degree in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion, which has been incred­i­bly help­ful. Addi­tion­al­ly, I pur­sued fur­ther edu­ca­tion in Fin­land, focus­ing on busi­ness devel­op­ment. This back­ground has giv­en me insights into run­ning a busi­ness effec­tive­ly. I believe ongo­ing edu­ca­tion is vital in entre­pre­neur­ship; it keeps me curi­ous and helps me find the best paths to suc­cess.

What makes Sam­ba Café unique com­pared to oth­er estab­lish­ments in Fin­land?

I’m proud to say that Sam­ba Café is the first region­al Brazil­ian cof­fee shop in Fin­land, which sets it apart from oth­er estab­lish­ments. My café focus­es specif­i­cal­ly on authen­tic Brazil­ian cof­fee and tra­di­tion­al dish­es, such as tapi­o­ca, clas­sic Brazil­ian cakes, cus­cus, Brigadeiro etc. This unique offer­ing draws in cus­tomers who are curi­ous to explore new flavours and expe­ri­ence a taste of Brazil.

Through Sam­ba Café, I aim to share the rich­ness of Brazil­ian cof­fee cul­ture and cui­sine with Fin­land, offer­ing an expe­ri­ence that goes beyond a meal. It’s about cre­at­ing a wel­com­ing space where peo­ple can con­nect with the warmth, diver­si­ty, and vibrant flavours of Brazil.

How has the com­mu­ni­ty respond­ed to your café?

The response has been over­whelm­ing­ly pos­i­tive! I’ve built a loy­al clien­tele that includes many Brazil­ians and Latin Amer­i­cans who feel a sense of con­nec­tion to their home­land when they vis­it. Many of them describe Sam­ba Café as a “lit­tle piece of Brazil,” which is incred­i­bly reward­ing to hear.

I also enjoy wel­com­ing Finnish cus­tomers, who may ini­tial­ly seem reserved but often express how much they appre­ci­ate the warm, invit­ing atmos­phere we’ve cre­at­ed. See­ing peo­ple from dif­fer­ent back­grounds con­nect over Brazil­ian flavours and cul­ture has been one of the most ful­fill­ing aspects of run­ning Sam­ba Café.

What are some of the most pop­u­lar items on your menu?

Some cus­tomer favourites include the Cas­sa­va cake, made with real cas­sa­va, which is nat­u­ral­ly flour- and yeast-free, as well as tra­di­tion­al Brazil­ian treats like corn cake, car­rot cake, tapi­o­ca and cheese bread. These items bring authen­tic Brazil­ian flavours to the menu while cater­ing to var­i­ous dietary pref­er­ences. I’ve adapt­ed some recipes to suit local tastes, espe­cial­ly with gluten- and lac­tose-free options, and it’s been incred­i­bly reward­ing to see how well they res­onate with my cus­tomers.

What advice would you give to aspir­ing entre­pre­neurs, espe­cial­ly those look­ing to start a busi­ness in a new coun­try?

Thor­ough plan­ning and mar­ket research are cru­cial, even if it takes time. Be pre­pared for chal­lenges, but don’t lose sight of your pas­sion. I relied entire­ly on per­son­al sav­ings, so be resource­ful and resilient. The jour­ney may have ups and downs, but per­sis­tence and deter­mi­na­tion are key.

As we con­clud­ed our inter­view, Gerlândia’s pas­sion for her café and its cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance was pal­pa­ble. Through Sam­ba Café, she not only shares the flavours of Brazil but also fos­ters con­nec­tions between two dis­tinct cul­tures, cre­at­ing a wel­com­ing space for all.

Insta­gram: @sambacafefinlandia

Loca­tion: Hal­li­tuskatu 30. Oulu-Fin­land.