In the last few years, the worst drought in Brazil since records began almost a century ago has plagued the country’s main coffee-growing regions. Earlier this year, Brazil’s government went as far as discussing the possibility of importing coffee beans for the first time, but abandoned plans following opposition from producers.

Production of the higher quality Arabica bean took a hit in the year from July 2014 to June 2015. Prolonged dry spells coupled with high temperatures in the state of Espirito Santo in the two years since have also resulted in lower harvests of the more bitter Robusta bean.

And even now, across the region, reservoirs used by farmers to water their crops remain dry. State officials banned or restricted the use of irrigation in a number of towns during periods of extreme drought, while construction of new reservoirs to ensure water is stored more efficiently during rainy spells is ongoing.

August 2014 August 2013 Satellite images show the change in water level in the Jaguari reservoir in Sao Paulo, Brazil, following the 2014 drought.

“For the past four years, we have had rain levels way below average. The crops are suffering,” says Inacio Brioschi, a coffee farmer from Espirito Santo.

Brioschi lost half his crop in 2016 and expects production to be 60% below average this year.

Media playback is unsupported on your device "There is nothing to collect" Battling drought in Brazil

Footage and interviews collected in early 2016 from Brazil’s Espirito Santo state. The BBC spoke to the same coffee farmers again in May 2017 and they reported that the situation had worsened this year.

A single drought cannot be attributed to climate change, stresses Dr Peter Baker, of the Coffee and Climate initiative, a body funded in part by the coffee industry. However, these extreme weather events constitute a major challenge for the coffee industry.

"It's not just the fact that temperatures are going up steadily, these major climatic events that can last for months are most damaging," Dr Baker says.

Climate-modelling studies support the idea the more extreme temperatures are arising from climate change, according to Richard Betts, head of climate impacts research at the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre.

Droughts coupled with rising temperatures overall means weather events have a greater impact, he says.

"With temperatures rising across the globe, it's fair to say that when droughts occur, their effects are often more intense due to the warming driving more evaporation and drying the land more," Mr Betts says.