Where Do Premium Specialty Coffees from São Paulo, Brazil Originate? What Are the Differences Between Pulped Natural and Natural Processing Methods?

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As the world's largest coffee-producing country, Brazil naturally produces coffee of excellent quality. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the coffee beans that best represent the flavor characteristics of Brazilian coffee regions are undoubtedly the Bourbon variety from Queen Estate. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the flavor characteristics of Brazilian Queen Estate coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazilian Queen Coffee Beans

Country: Brazil
Region: São Paulo State (Queen Estate)
Altitude: 1400-1950m
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing Method: Pulped Natural/Natural
Flavor: Nuts, Cream, Peanuts, Fermented Fruits, Sugarcane

Brazilian Queen Estate

FrontStreet Coffee believes that seasoned coffee enthusiasts are no strangers to Brazilian Queen Estate. Queen Estate is owned by the renowned coffee family Carvalho Dias family. The four major estates under Carvalho Dias have won awards every year since the first Brazil Cup of Excellence (COE) competition in 1999, with over 12 awards in 7 years. In 2004, they even swept the championship, 9th place, 11th place, and more. Many large and small estates in Brazil have hoped to qualify for awards over the years but found it difficult to achieve, yet the estates under this family have consistently won multiple awards. For example, Queen Estate Fazenda Rainfa also boasts brilliant records: 2nd place in 2000, 3rd place in 2001, and 29th place in 2005. To date, Queen Estate has won awards three times.

Furthermore, FrontStreet Coffee understands that the Carvalho Dias family is a founding member of the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association. Their commitment to coffee quality and environmental protection is evident to all. Within their family farms, they utilize natural waterfalls to develop pollution-free hydroelectric power, becoming self-sufficient in electricity needs. They have built churches, classrooms, nurseries, medical stations, and insisted on maintaining native forests and continuous reforestation. Taking Queen Estate as an example, environmental protection is quite thorough. Due to its high altitude and non-plain terrain, machines cannot be used for harvesting, so all fruits are hand-picked. They cultivate low-yield, high-quality Bourbon varieties, making it a representative estate of premium Brazilian coffee essence.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the coffee beans produced by Queen Estate inevitably best represent the flavor characteristics of Brazilian coffee regions. FrontStreet Coffee's previous articles also mentioned that the flavor of a quality coffee bean depends on its origin, variety, and processing method. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will explain these three major factors that determine the flavor of Queen Estate coffee beans.

Brazilian Coffee Growing Conditions

Brazil is located in the Western Hemisphere's Latin American region, in eastern South America on the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean. On land, it borders all countries on the South American continent except Ecuador and Chile. The vast majority of its territory lies between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, making it the country with the most extensive tropical range in the world. One-third of its territory has a tropical rainforest climate, while two-thirds has a tropical savanna climate. The superior tropical natural conditions are very suitable for the growth and production of tropical economic crops like coffee.

Brazilian Coffee Growing Regions

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Brazil has 21 states, and currently 17 of them produce coffee. However, production is mainly concentrated in four states: Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo, which together account for 98% of the country's total production. Among them, Paraná in the south has the most astonishing production, with a single state accounting for 50% of the total production.

Brazilian Queen Estate is located in São Paulo State, where coffee is grown among bushes, grasslands, and other vegetation. In this region, there are many farming families, some of which adopt traditional large-scale farm operations, while others take small-scale modern approaches. It is precisely this combination of modern technology and mountain coffee cultivation culture that has created the highest quality Brazilian coffee beans.

Brazilian Queen Estate Coffee Bean Varieties

As mentioned above, the coffee beans from Brazilian Queen Estate are mainly of the Yellow Bourbon variety. Yellow Bourbon is a genetic mutation of Bourbon. Bourbon has long been considered a leader among coffee varieties due to its low yield and high quality. Yellow Bourbon is a unique Bourbon variety found only in São Paulo State, Brazil. Unlike Red Bourbon, where coffee fruits turn red when mature, Yellow Bourbon fruits turn orange-yellow, hence the name. Because Yellow Bourbon is grown at very high altitudes, its flavor is excellent. The reason why Brazilian Queen Estate coffee beans sold by FrontStreet Coffee are very popular among Frontsteet's regular customers.

Bourbon

The Bourbon variety was discovered in Brazil, making it also a main variety of Brazilian coffee. Since Brazil is the world's largest exporter and producer, many Latin American growing regions now cultivate Bourbon variety coffee beans. Furthermore, FrontStreet Coffee understands that Bourbon coffee was initially cultivated on Réunion Island, which was called Bourbon Island before 1789. Bourbon coffee originates from the natural mutation of the Typica coffee variety under Arabica, making it one of the oldest existing coffee varieties.

Typical Bourbon coffee mainly changes from green fruits to mature bright red fruits, which is what we know as "Red Bourbon." The fruits are relatively short and round, also called round-bodied Bourbon. The flesh and seeds have high density, with high sweetness and bright acidity. Besides Red Bourbon, there are also Yellow Bourbon, as well as the rare Orange Bourbon and the precious Pink Bourbon and Red Bourbon.

What Are Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon?

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, Yellow Bourbon is actually a unique Bourbon variety found only in São Paulo State, Brazil. This is mainly because when the fruits mature, they don't turn red but instead show an orange-yellow color, hence the name Yellow Bourbon. According to Frontsteet's cupping practice, Yellow Bourbon coffee beans grown in high-altitude regions show excellent flavor performance. For two consecutive years, the top three awards in the Brazil Cup of Excellence competition were almost entirely swept by Yellow Bourbon coffee beans, making it popular in the specialty coffee world.

Furthermore, FrontStreet Coffee believes that Yellow Bourbon typically has nutty and chocolate flavors, with balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, resulting in an overall bright and refreshing taste.

Red Bourbon, on the other hand, follows the typical color change of coffee fruits after flowering: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker ripe red, hence the name Red Bourbon. Its flavor has better aroma, with brighter acidity, and even has red wine-like notes when tasted.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee has also introduced Brazilian Red Bourbon coffee beans as daily coffee for coffee enthusiasts to taste. Its flavor performance is also good, maintaining the inherent characteristics of Brazilian coffee flavor, though slightly inferior to Brazilian Queen Estate coffee beans in flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazilian Red Bourbon Coffee Beans

Country: Brazil
Region: South Minas
Altitude: 1000m
Variety: Red Bourbon
Processing Method: Pulped Natural
Flavor: Nuts, Chocolate, Cream, Peanuts, Caramel

Brazilian Queen Estate Coffee Bean Processing Method

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Brazilian coffee beans most commonly have four processing methods: natural processing, pulped natural processing, semi-washed processing, and washed processing. Among these, washed processing started relatively late in Brazil and has not yet gained high market acceptance.

This is because before 1990, Brazil almost exclusively used rough natural processing methods, which made Brazilian beans prone to woody or earthy flavors. Since coffee fruits had to undergo two to three weeks of sun exposure, encountering rain and moisture would easily cause moldy flavors in the coffee beans, affecting quality. Therefore, Brazilian coffee farmers developed the pulped natural method to shorten processing time.

Pulped natural processing can also be called semi-washed processing, essentially a combination of natural and washed methods. Brazil has water shortages and unpredictable flood seasons, making full washing unable to guarantee sufficient water supply, while full natural processing cannot guarantee long periods of dry weather. Therefore, utilizing their natural advantages, they created the pulped natural processing method, which greatly reduces water consumption and natural drying time, reversing two hundred years of crude Brazilian coffee quality.

Pulped Natural Processing Method

Pulped natural processing involves removing the skin and pulp of coffee cherries, allowing control over the fermentation degree of the mucilage-covered coffee beans after depulping. Traditional natural processing involves sun-drying with the skin and pulp intact, making it impossible to monitor the fermentation degree of the mucilage. The pulped natural method is between natural and washed processing methods but eliminates the "tank fermentation, water rinsing" process of washed processing, instead directly placing the beans in sunlight for drying. Although the methods seem similar, without the fermentation step, the coffee bean flavor is completely different. During the removal of coffee skin and pulp in pulped natural processing, ripe pulp is easily removed, while unripe green cherry skins are difficult to process, allowing for a second screening to filter out unripe fruits and standardize the maturity of coffee cherries. Compared to natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee believes that this selected processing results in cleaner and more mature coffee beans, bringing more uniform coffee flavor.

Because both Frontsteet's Brazilian Cerrado coffee and Frontsteet's Brazilian Queen Estate have rich nutty aromas and balanced flavors, they are suitable for various extraction methods and can be made into moka pot coffee, American coffee, siphon coffee, drip bag coffee, etc. Everyone can purchase them from Frontsteet's Tmall flagship store.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Grading Standards

Furthermore, FrontStreet Coffee understands that among the many coffee-growing countries in Central and South America, Brazil's altitude is relatively low. Therefore, Brazil does not emphasize hard beans that can only grow in high-altitude regions like other countries such as Colombia. Instead, Brazilian coffee beans are graded based on four criteria: bean size, defect rate, cupping score, and flavor.

Flavor Grading: From high to low: Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hardish, Rioy (iodine flavor).

Defect Rate Grading: Based on the number of defective beans. In every 300g of green beans, having 6 defective beans is NY.2. Completely defect-free beans can be NY.1, but completely defect-free beans are rare and cannot maintain a stable supply, so the best grade among Brazilian green beans is NY.2.

Cupping Quality Grading: From high to low: Fine Cup, Fine, Good Cup, Fair Cup, Poor Cup, Bad Cup. FC (Fine Cup) and GC (Good Cup) are more common.

Bean Size Grading: The largest screen size for Brazilian coffee beans is 19, but production is limited, so 17 and 18 screen sizes are considered the highest grades.

The above is Frontsteet's compilation of related information about Brazilian coffee bean varieties and characteristics, hoping to help coffee enthusiasts who want to understand Brazilian Queen Estate coffee. Before FrontStreet Coffee launches any new coffee bean, they conduct extensive roasting and brewing tests to determine the most suitable parameters for pour-over coffee, ensuring the coffee presents its best flavor to coffee enthusiasts. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the roasting and brewing parameters for this Brazilian Queen Estate coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

Brazilian Yellow Bourbon Roasting Suggestions: Yangjia 800N, bean input 550g: Preheat to 200°C, adjust heat to 150, damper open to 3, return temperature at 1'30", maintain heat, turn yellow at 5'10", grassy smell disappears, enter dehydration stage, reduce heat to 125, open damper to 3.5. Dehydration complete at 8'20", wrinkles and dark spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma changes to coffee aroma, prelude to first crack. When reaching 178°C, reduce heat to 80, pay attention to listen for first crack sounds. First crack begins at 9'14", fully open damper to 5. Post-first crack development time 3'00", discharge at 201°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

Dripper: KONO
Dose: 15g
Water Temperature: 90°C
Grind Size: Medium grind, 70% passing through #20 standard sieve
Water-to-Coffee Ratio: 1:15

Frontsteet uses segmented extraction. The bloom water amount is twice the coffee dose, meaning 30g of water for 30-second bloom. Use small circular pours to 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. The entire extraction time is 2 minutes.

Brazilian Queen Estate Coffee Bean Flavor: Balanced mouthfeel, with sugarcane sweetness prominent in the main notes of almond and cocoa, making it a full-bodied coffee with rich sweetness.

Important Notice :

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