Before being served, coffee passes through forty pairs of hands in its journey from sowing to an espresso cup. Behind every one of these exchanges, there is a different culture, a face, a story to be told.

40 Hands is a journey to discover the people who have decided to dedicate their lives to their passion for coffee. The coffee journey follows a path that unfolds through generations and latitudes, united by the same values: “Respect, dedication and responsibility, especially towards nature,” says Enrique Mancilla Oyos, a Peruvian farmer who has been working with Lavazza for years.

His ancestors processed coffee at Nagazú, but at the time there were no roads, so production was limited to the needs of the family.

“Then I arrived,” his son Abel tells us, “and Lavazza arrived too, almost at the same time, with its community support project that improved our manufacturing process, by providing the equipment and knowledge we needed.”

Since 1895, Lavazza’s passion for coffee has been shared with the families who cultivated it. Respecting the history and values of these defenders of the earth is, without a doubt, vital—just as it is to help new generations fully express their skills and traditions.

Coffee has always been the social drink for excellence. It has the power to unite people, allowing us to share stories and dreams, like that of Father Peter Kilsara, director of the Mese Ring School of Kirua, Tanzania.
“Throughout most of Africa, giving the youngest a chance to study and educate themselves means giving them an opportunity for life as well as growth, and for me personally, it has also meant being able to realize my dream.”

We met Father Peter during the production of ¡Tierra!, a sustainability project undertaken in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance NGO, which aims to produce coffee that is 100% sourced from sustainable agriculture. He contacted us: “We introduced ourselves to Lavazza as a community of small coffee producers. From that moment onwards, we became part of ¡Tierra!: a project that enhances both the quality of the coffee and its production. Production plants have been developed, in order to improve and simplify processing. At the same time, houses, an infirmary and a school have also been built. So now, farmers receive support for the education of their children in addition to being able to work autonomously and create a higher quality coffee."

Coffee farming goes beyond being a mere step of the manufacturing process: It is a ritual, a craft, a cultural essence and a source of sustenance for countless people all over the world. Behind every espresso cup served, there is passion that is handed down from generation to generation.