Introduction to the Origin Story of Brazilian Cerrado Coffee Beans and Flavor Characteristics

Brazil: The World's Largest Coffee Exporter

Brazil is the world's largest coffee exporter, with a total of 21 states, 17 of which produce coffee. However, four states account for 90% of the national total production: Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Espírito Santo. In the southern Minas Gerais state, the Cerrado region, also known as "Cerrado," is Brazil's oldest coffee-producing region with the most favorable climatic conditions. Today, we'll explore Cerrado.

Brazil Cerrado Coffee Beans

Brazil Cerrado coffee beans are widely used in espresso blends. FrontStreet Coffee adds Brazilian coffee beans to its blend to enhance richness and balance the taste. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series features a Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon coffee bean, loved by many customers for its rich, smooth chocolate and nutty flavor characteristics.

Brazil Cerrado Coffee Region

Minas Gerais is located in the eastern part of southern Brazil, and Cerrado is situated right here. As early as 30 years ago, the Cerrado region was actually unknown to the world; it was a desolate mountain quietly sitting in Brazil, which is why Cerrado means "savanna" in Portuguese. Today, Cerrado is a famous coffee-producing area. Cerrado actually occupies 22% of Brazil's total area as a vast savanna, deep in the Brazilian interior. The Cerrado coffee region that FrontStreet Coffee refers to is not the entire Cerrado savanna, but limited to the coffee-growing areas in the central-western part of Minas province with elevations above 1000 meters. This area represents the essence of the Cerrado savanna, with high altitudes and fertile soil, making it possible to grow specialty coffee beans that are sweet, full-bodied, and clean.

Its coffee is cultivated on flat plateaus at around 1000 meters altitude using large-scale mechanized farming. Its unique soil and abundant groundwater are essential ecological conditions for producing high-quality coffee in Cerrado. The excellent soil and climate of Cerrado are innate. Early coffee farmers who opened this land integrated modern agricultural concepts with Cerrado agricultural techniques, overcoming harsh natural environments and transforming this "savanna" into fertile land for producing high-quality coffee, making it a pillar of local economic income.

Brazil Cerrado Organic Farms

In Cerrado, besides the unique soil and climate, there is also a special phenomenon: when you are near coffee-growing areas, you will always find one or two farms raising livestock. The existence of these farms is a characteristic of Cerrado's agricultural community structure. Weeds from coffee plantations serve as excellent feed for livestock, while animal manure from the farms provides high-quality organic fertilizer for coffee trees. The entire ecological system is balanced, so small animals and earthworms are often seen on the ground. Farms and pastoral houses near coffee plantations are typical landscapes in the Cerrado coffee region.

Cerrado Coffee Certification

Therefore, Brazil's Cerrado coffee is now synonymous with high-quality coffee. In 2005, high-quality Arabica coffee harvested in Cerrado was officially certified as "Cerrado Coffee" by the Brazilian government according to international standards and declared as recognized. To use the Cerrado designation within the region, one must pass certification tests and meet production quality standards. The evaluation of green beans must include factors such as certified production area, production area elevation, confirmed varieties, best soil, and best agricultural techniques. In terms of quality, beans must score above 75 points using SCAA evaluation methods to be granted the Cerrado designation.

Brazil Coffee Bean Grading Characteristics

Due to Brazil's flat and monotonous terrain, most coffee farms are located below 1000 meters altitude and traditionally use sun-exposed cultivation methods. Originally, this didn't meet the high-altitude shade-grown requirements for specialty coffee beans, but coincidentally developed a unique Brazilian soft bean flavor with low acidity, heavy nutty notes, excellent sweetness and body, and minimal floral and fruity aromas. For coffee connoisseurs, Brazilian coffee has neither particularly outstanding advantages nor obvious shortcomings. This coffee with mild taste, low acidity, moderate body, light sweetness, and chocolate flavors is the best test for the taste buds to distinguish them one by one. Brazil cleverly utilizes the characteristic of mixing all these mild flavors together, classifying coffee into five grades to interpret a unique, gentle and smooth Brazilian soft bean aesthetic: Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hardish, and Rioy.

In recent years, Brazil has cleverly demonstrated the characteristics of Brazilian coffee through this grading system and pointed out a development path for high-quality Brazilian coffee. Today's soft bean aesthetic has replaced the traditional impression of Brazilian-style mild coffee. Good Brazilian coffee should reflect the subtle sweetness of nuts, lower acidity, and good viscosity with a smooth mouthfeel. The beans from the Cerrado region are famous for precisely this flavor profile. Coffee from this region is mostly exported to Europe and America and is synonymous with Brazilian specialty coffee.

Brazil Cerrado Processing Method

Pulped natural processing method: after selecting suitable coffee cherries, remove the skin and pulp and part of the mucilage, then dry with a small amount of mucilage until the moisture content reaches 12%.

The pulped natural processing method is actually very similar to honey processing. For example, FrontStreet Coffee has several Costa Rican coffee beans famous for honey processing. Honey processing is simply Costa Rica's definition of pulped natural, but Costa Rica has refined honey processing even further, dividing it into yellow honey, red honey, black honey, etc. Therefore, gradually, the term "pulped natural" has become less famous than "honey processing."

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Coffee Bean Brewing Method

FrontStreet Coffee: Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon Coffee

Country: Brazil
Region: Cerrado
Altitude: 1000 meters
Variety: Red Bourbon
Processing: Pulped Natural
Flavor: Nuts, chocolate, cream, peanut, caramel

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters: Use Kono dripper, 88°C water temperature, 15g coffee dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, medium-fine grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve pass rate 70-75%).

For darker roasted coffee beans designed to highlight richness, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono dripper for brewing. The characteristic of the Kono dripper is its soaking function, which can use soaking to extract more coffee substances and enhance body. Because it has few ribs located at the bottom, it allows the filter paper to fit closely against the dripper to achieve the effect of restricting airflow, thereby slowing water flow and increasing water-coffee contact time.

Water temperature is chosen between 86-88°C. Lower brewing temperatures can avoid extracting too much undesirable flavor from the coffee beans during the brewing process, because the darker the roast, the more undesirable flavors increase. FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction: 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then small circular pouring until reaching 125g, continue pouring to 225g when the water level drops to just expose the coffee bed (timing starts from bloom), total extraction time is 2 minutes.

Cerrado coffee has noticeable sweetness upon entry, accompanied by light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavors, and distinct dark chocolate notes in the aftertaste. The overall experience is quite rounded.

Important Notice :

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