Through Hazel’s eyes

There’s something special about childhood memories, the way they retrace forgotten parts of your upbringing and create feelings of nostalgia. For Hazel de los Reyes, memories of school holidays spent at her grandmother’s house in Batangas in the Philippines became the catalyst for a career she’s obsessed with.

Hazel’s grandmother would make her six-year-old granddaughter a morning coffee straight from the wild Coffea liberica growing in the backyard. To sweeten it, she’d add condensed milk.

“Right from the beginning I’ve associated coffee as a positive thing in my life because it’s attached to happy memories,” Hazel says.

“Your sense of smell goes through the olfactory bulb, which is connected to the hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for memory and emotion, so it’s logical that I associate coffee