Prefab’s coffee roaster specialist, Lucas Sidow de Campos, was born and raised in Brazil. His curiosity about the natural world extended from single cells to larger organisms, and he had a particular fondness for tasting exotic dishes from around the globe.
With a background in agriculture, including studying coffee plants, Sidow de Campos experimented with different procedures and parameters for roasting and brewing coffee.
His knowledge, acquired through courses and hands-on experience, allowed him to begin his career in the coffee industry in Aotearoa as a barista and manager of a coffee cart by Roxy Cinema, eventually leading him to be a coffee roaster at Prefab in 2019.
Prefab offers in-house roasted coffee using a modern semi-automatic coffee roaster, Loring. This allows each batch to be roasted to the profile set for each origin with great precision, resulting in a clean and consistent taste. They also make in-house baked artisan bread.
The most rewarding aspect of Sidow de Campos’ job is when clients begin to appreciate each cup of coffee with attention, resulting in questions directed towards their team about how their coffee is uniquely different.
He described that a great cup of coffee must have a hint of acidity, as refreshing as lemonade, a body that fulfils the tongue with comforting notes such as chocolate, hazelnut, caramel, sweetness that is pleasant like raisins, apricot, or molasses, and an aftertaste that persists, calling you to sip on the coffee again, slowly and relaxing as a deep breath.
Sidow de Campos’s go-to coffee order is a flat white. When not working, he enjoys reading about science and technology, watching science videos, tending to his plants, growing his vegetables, observing insects closely, and playing adventure video games.
