Something’s Brewing

Even if you don’t know Leon, you might be familiar with his coffee. He’s the founder of Papa Palheta, which started as a coffee roasting and wholesale business. His company now owns several cafés, and supplies coffee to several others. While coffee is Leon’s area of expertise, there’s something he admits to that would surprise some. “Contrary to what most people might think of me, I actually like to drink tea — a lot,” he says. “You can only drink that much caffeine in a day; too much can give you a bad bout of acid reflux.” Leon says that he loves that his team is comprised of people who have an affinity for coffee and the industry, although the nature of his job is sometimes unpredictable. “You can never best predict when there’ll be a client meeting, or when you need to get your hands dirty with roasting, machine repairs, and coffee making,” he says. “So I will try to always look smart regardless of the task. I find myself going back to basics, with oxford cotton shirts or premium cotton basic tees.” Leon throws in some checks or stripes as his way of personalizing, and says he’s also recently been into ceramic brooches pinned onto jackets, and topping off his outfits with hats. While he’s aware that the weather can affect the way that people dress, he suggests that men should stay away from t-shirts with deep V-necklines. “It may be cooling for our hot climate, but no one wants to see that far down your chest, guys!” Leon believes in starting work earlier in the morning in order to give himself a head start, which also sets him in the right frame of mind to approach the day’s activities. Perhaps it is also one of his methods of juggling personal time and work. “It is a challenge, and you just have to keep working to find that balance. Having a kid will change the equation, and I was recently blessed to learn that.” While Leon isn’t spending time with his family, he listens to good music and does pottery when he wants to wind down, or goes running when he feels like sweating it out. And even though Leon’s been in the business for some time, he hasn’t lost that spark of enthusiasm that got him started in the first place. “I still think I can change the world, just at my own pace.”