Photograph courtesy Sweetness Brazilian Bakery
For more than 20 years, Thiago Riva’s family owned a grocery store and bakery in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, where he grew up helping his family make breads and pastries. Similarly, his wife, Patricia Sebold, helped her mother at a young age make cakes and traditional Brazilian treats. So when the married couple of 10 years opened Sweetness in 2023, their intention was simple: to bring a taste of Brazil to their new home here in Ohio.
Photograph courtesy Sweetness Brazilian Bakery
While their intention was simple, the path to achieving their dream was anything but. “When we moved here, we always dreamed of having a bakery, and we were praying and thinking, ‘How can we do that?’” Sebold says. “Because we didn’t know anyone who [owned] a coffee shop or bakery to get some information, we started everything alone.”
In the last three years, they’ve been making a name for themselves, offering an authentic taste of Brazil in the form of sweet and savory handmade pastries, sandwiches on homemade bread, innovative and traditional desserts, and authentic Brazilian-sourced coffee. Sometimes putting in 12- to 14-hour days, Riva and Sebold are dedicated to quality, stating that 90% of what they offer is made from scratch, in-house.
Located in Loveland’s Wards Crossing Shopping Center, Sweetness’s atmosphere is warmed by cheerful pastel walls, tiny Brazilian flags festooned like streamers, and staff eager to help you try something new—or something familiar.
One of the bestsellers is its brigadeiro. Similar in size and appearance to a chocolate truffle, it’s made from sweetened condensed milk, giving it a gooey, elastic consistency similar to a soft caramel. It’s then coated in sprinkles, placed in small paper cups, and served at just about any celebration from weddings to children’s birthday parties.
Photograph courtesy Sweetness Brazilian Bakery
Classic brigadeiros are chocolate, but Sweetness takes it a few steps further with 12 different flavors, including dulce de leche covered with salted caramel crisps, tangy passion fruit coated in sugar, and fresh strawberry dolloped with Nutella.
Then there are the cookies. Sebold says customers frequently tell her, “I’ve never seen cookies like this before.” “Which makes me happy,” she adds, smiling.
The enormous cookies are stuffed with different fillings that spill out with each bite. The chocolate chip cookies are packed with creamy brigaderio on the inside, while the red velvet is ballooned with a hazelnut cream.
When they first opened, the cookie wasn’t one of the bakery’s original items, but over time, Sebold and Riva began taking note of what people in the U.S. gravitated toward.
Photograph courtesy Sweetness Brazilian Bakery
“The cookie, it’s like the American language,” Sebold says. “So we try to learn more about cookies. And after experimenting we finally got it. We finally got [our recipe].”
The couple has added their own take to a few other familiar breakfast staples like the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, melted on pillow-soft Brazilian bread.
“We see that when Americans try something, like a cookie, and they like it, they come back again and try something like a coxinha,” Sebold says, referring to a fried potato dough filled with chicken and cream cheese. “It might be something they don’t know, so once they get a little taste, they want to try more things. They get the confidence to try Brazilian food.”
The menu includes other savory items like the Picanha steak sandwich drizzled with homemade garlic sauce, various empanadas, and three cheese bread made in poppable bite-size rounds. The bakery also offers other desserts like the popular Brazilian-style carrot cake layered with a Belgian milk chocolate brigadeiro.
In tandem with Sweetness’s third anniversary coming up in May, the owners hope to unveil a reimagined space that feels more like a coffee shop. “We want people to come here and work from here,” Sebold says. “Maybe add some couches and make it feel more like home.”
Photograph courtesy Sweetness Brazilian Bakery
The idea of “home” runs through just about everything at Sweetness. Much of its food and supplies are sourced from Brazil, including the coffee. And for anyone who wants to take the taste of Brazil home with them, there’s a small selection of grocery items available, along with handmade bread and bags of the roasted coffee beans.
The owners have shared that Sweetness has become a place that sparks nostalgia for many people from regions in South America who now live in Cincinnati. But that the customer base has also grown to include many people who have never had Brazilian treats. “It’s been a good response from everyone,” Riva says.
“It’s a taste of home, even if it’s Brazilian food,” adds Sebold. “Because it’s still like comfort food, you know? For Brazilians, food is like an experience. In our house, we always sit at the table and talk and eat all together. It’s bringing that tradition here.”
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