How to Brew Brazilian Coffee: Flavor Description of Medium Roast Single-Origin Brazilian Coffee Beans

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On single-origin coffee bean menus, you'll rarely see Brazilian coffee names, as they mostly appear as blend beans, which is closely related to their flavor profile. However, Brazilian coffee is present in almost all espresso blends—some even containing 90% Brazilian coffee—and can also be found in many well-known blended coffee brands and canned coffees, demonstrating how important a role Brazil plays in the coffee industry. Although Brazilian coffee is widely distributed throughout the commercial coffee market, this doesn't mean it can't compete in the specialty market. The coffee industry is undoubtedly one of Brazil's most important economic sectors. Brazil is the world's largest coffee-producing country and has also secured a place in the specialty coffee market in recent years. Coffee varieties produced in regions such as Paraná, Espírito Santo, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Bahia include Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, and Mundo Novo.

At FrontStreet Coffee, we have two Brazilian coffee beans: one representing the flavor of Brazil's basic producing regions—Cerrado coffee beans; and another representing specialty estates—Queen Farm Yellow Bourbon coffee beans.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Producing Regions

The altitude of coffee has a significant relationship with its flavor. For example, with Panama Geisha coffee, the higher the altitude and harsher the environment, the better the flavor. The growing altitude of Brazilian coffee producing regions is relatively low compared to other Central and South American producing regions, and this low altitude determines its flavor characteristics. The terrain here is flat and monotonous, lacking microclimates, and there's a习惯 of adopting unshaded (full-sun) cultivation methods, which has developed Brazil's unique soft bean flavor—low acidity, heavy nutty notes, chocolate sweetness with excellent body, though with slight woody and earthy notes, and不明显的花香与橘香. Simply put, Brazilian coffee is relatively mild, balanced, and less likely to exhibit the wild, uplifting acidity and citrus notes typical of African beans. This makes it an excellent choice for blend beans. FrontStreet Coffee's blend beans are all based on Brazilian coffee beans.

Brazilian coffee bean producing regions are concentrated in the central and southern parts, distributed across 7 states with approximately 14 coffee producing regions: Sul de Minas, Serra da Mantiqueira, Chapada de Minas, Matas de Minas, Mogiana, Centro-Oeste de São Paulo, Montanhas do Espírito Santo, Conilon Capixaba, Cerrado, Planalto da Bahia, Atlântico Baiano, Paraná, Rondônia, and Cerrado. Among these, the most representative is undoubtedly the Cerrado region. It can be said that the Sul de Minas and Cerrado regions have made immeasurable contributions to the rise of Brazilian coffee.

Sul de Minas (South Minas):

With elevations ranging from 700m to 1200m, this is a hilly region and Brazil's earliest coffee-producing area. Due to rising labor costs, mechanical harvesting is now predominantly used, making it also the earliest commercialized coffee region where we can see many large exporters. Sul de Minas之所以能成为咖啡精品产区很大一部分是因为地形和气候. Its altitude exceeds 1100 meters, with diverse terrain. There are distinct wet and dry seasons, significant day-night temperature differences, and diverse microclimates, making it very suitable for cultivating Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon varieties.

Cerrado:

FrontStreet Coffee's daily consumption Brazilian coffee comes from the Cerrado region. FrontStreet Coffee believes that the coffee flavor from this region is rich and free from earthy notes, which is closely related to its climate. The Cerrado region is located in the southern mountainous area of Brazil's central "Cerrado Savannah Climate Zone," which spans eight provinces and covers approximately two million square kilometers, occupying 22% of Brazil's total area. Deep in Brazil's interior, "Cerrado" in Portuguese means "closed place." The Cerrado savannah originates from Mato Grosso province in southwestern Brazil, extends through central-western Minas, and reaches the western part of Bahia province. The so-called Cerrado Coffee Region refers to the area where the savannah extends into Minas province at elevations of 850∼1200 meters on plateaus, which differs from "Sul de Minas" also located in Minas province in Brazil's coffee regional classification. The flat and open terrain of the savannah is particularly suitable for establishing large estates, combined with distinct wet and dry seasons and a relatively cool plateau climate. This area represents the essence of the Cerrado savannah, with high altitude and fertile soil, making it possible to grow specialty coffee beans that are sweet, have high body, and exhibit high cleanliness.

Mogiana:

This region is very close to southern Minas. Coffee is grown among bushes, grasslands, and other vegetation. In this area, there are many farming families, some of which operate traditional large farms while others adopt small-scale modern operations. The combination of modern technology and mountain coffee cultivation culture has created the highest quality green coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Queen coffee comes from the Mogiana region.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Varieties

There are many coffee bean varieties, and their flavors naturally differ. When you see on FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian coffee packaging that it says: Variety Red Bourbon, what exactly is this variety? And what are Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon varieties? FrontStreet Coffee would like to introduce them to everyone:

Red Bourbon:

Red Bourbon is actually a sub-variety resulting from a Typica mutation, belonging to the same category as Typica as one of the oldest existing coffee varieties. It generally produces red fruits, called Red Bourbon, but there are also Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon. Red Bourbon refers to the general Bourbon coffee tree's color change process after flowering and fruiting: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker red when fully ripe, hence the name Red Bourbon. Its flavor features excellent aroma, bright acidity, and even wine-like characteristics when tasted. Red Bourbon is currently the most widely planted variety in Brazilian coffee producing regions.

FrontStreet Coffee's daily consumption Brazilian coffee is the Red Bourbon variety.

Yellow Bourbon:

Yellow Bourbon is also a genetic mutation of Bourbon. Bourbon has long been considered among the best coffees due to its high yield and excellent quality. Yellow Bourbon is a unique Bourbon variant native to São Paulo state, Brazil. Unlike Red Bourbon which turns red when ripe, Yellow Bourbon's coffee cherries turn orange-yellow when mature, hence the name Yellow Bourbon. Because Yellow Bourbon is grown at very high altitudes, its flavor is exceptional.

Yellow Bourbon typically features nuts and chocolate, with balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, resulting in an overall bright and refreshing profile. Just like FrontStreet Coffee's Yellow Bourbon variety Brazilian Queen coffee.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Natural Processing Method

Before 1990, Brazil almost exclusively used crude natural processing methods, which made Brazilian beans susceptible to woody or earthy flavors because the coffee cherries had to undergo two to three weeks of sun exposure, and when rain caused moisture return, moldy flavors could easily develop. To change this situation of being completely dependent on weather, in 1990 Brazil leveraged its relatively dry climate characteristics and developed the pulped natural method to shorten processing time.

Pulped natural processing involves removing the skin and pulp of coffee cherries, allowing control over the fermentation degree of the coffee beans with mucilage after depulping. Traditional natural processing involves sun-drying with the skin and pulp intact, making it impossible to monitor the mucilage fermentation degree. The pulped natural method is between natural and washed processing methods but eliminates the "tank fermentation and clean water rinsing" steps of washed processing, instead directly sun-drying the beans. Although the methods appear similar, without the fermentation step, the coffee bean flavor is completely different. In the process of removing coffee cherry skin and pulp during pulped natural processing, ripe pulp comes off easily, while unripe green cherry skins are difficult to remove, allowing for a second screening to filter out unripe fruits and standardize cherry maturity. Compared to natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee believes that this selection and processing improves coffee bean cleanliness and maturity, resulting in more uniform flavor.

Compared to natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee believes that this pulped natural processing method significantly improves cleanliness and maturity. FrontStreet Coffee's daily consumption Brazilian coffee uses the pulped natural processing method. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado coffee is processed using the pulped natural method, featuring balanced flavor suitable for various extraction methods, including moka pot coffee, American coffee, siphon coffee, drip bag coffee, etc. Everyone can purchase from FrontStreet Coffee's Tmall flagship store.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Coffee Brewing Parameters:

Brazilian coffee is so unique—how should it be brewed to fully express its flavor? Below, FrontStreet Coffee shares some parameters for hand-brewing Brazilian coffee:

The flavor profile of Brazilian coffee features nuts, chocolate, and caramel notes, so FrontStreet Coffee's roasters choose dark roast. The darker the roast, the more porous the coffee bean structure becomes, with stronger water absorption, making extraction easier during brewing. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee uses lower water temperature and coarser grind size to avoid over-extraction that produces bitter flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee chooses: KONO dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g of coffee, grind size of 75% passing through China No. 20 standard sieve, and segmented brewing. The brewed Brazilian coffee has rich caramel, nut, peanut, and cream flavors.

For the dripper choice, FrontStreet Coffee selected the KONO Meimon dripper. The biggest feature of the KONO dripper is that its ribs extend from the bottom to the middle, while the upper part has smooth walls. When filter paper adheres to the dripper, water cannot "secretly" bypass the coffee grounds, improving body richness.

FrontStreet Coffee still uses 15g of coffee. The amount of coffee grounds is not necessarily better with more or less—it depends on the specific dripper specifications. FrontStreet Coffee uses a 1-2 person dripper, where 15-20g is a reasonable brewing amount. Brewing with amounts outside this range can be difficult.

For the coffee-to-water ratio, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using 1:15. Although some might suggest using 1:13 or even smaller ratios, FrontStreet Coffee has mentioned before that concentration and body don't necessarily correlate, and over-concentration can cause discomfort. Therefore, using a 1:15 ratio can also well express Brazilian coffee's caramel and chocolate sweetness. Of course, if you want a milder flavor, you can slightly adjust the ratio yourself.

For coffee grind size, FrontStreet Coffee uses 75% passing through a No. 20 sieve. The grind size for brewing Brazilian coffee should be slightly coarser than for light roast coffee beans because Brazilian coffee uses dark roast, which has a more porous structure and more easily absorbs water and releases coffee substances. If ground to the same fineness as light roast beans, it's easy to extract bitter flavors; if ground even coarser, the coffee becomes thin and tasteless, with a watery texture.

For water temperature choice, FrontStreet Coffee recommends brewing with 88°C water. Similar to the grind size principle, too high water temperature easily produces bitter flavors, while too low water temperature makes the coffee flat and may produce unpleasant sour notes.

For the brewing method, FrontStreet Coffee also uses three-stage pouring. Three-stage pouring can better express Brazilian coffee's nut, peanut, cream, and caramel sweetness. The specific water distribution is: first stage bloom with 30ml water, completely wetting the coffee grounds for degassing to prepare for better extraction of coffee flavor substances in subsequent stages. Using segmented extraction, bloom with twice the amount of water as coffee grounds—30g water for 30 seconds. The blooming process is necessary to allow coffee grounds to release internal carbon dioxide, making later extraction more stable. Second stage: small circular pour until reaching 125g, then stop; when coffee grounds are exposed, proceed with third stage. Third stage: continue pouring until reaching 225g, then stop. Remove the dripper when the water finishes dripping. Time from the start of pouring: extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the entire pot of coffee, shake it well, and pour into cups for tasting.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations:

Regarding coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that coffee bean freshness is a very important factor. Fresh coffee beans allow for the fullest appreciation of rich coffee flavors. All coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are roasted within 5 days because FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands that coffee bean freshness greatly affects flavor. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Good Coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee degassing period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at peak flavor.

Of course, some customers need FrontStreet Coffee to grind their beans, which is also fine. However, FrontStreet Coffee must remind you: once coffee beans are pre-ground, there's no need for degassing because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide in the packaging also helps round out the coffee flavor, so you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly because coffee grounds oxidize quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor dissipates relatively quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends buying whole beans and grinding fresh for each brew to better enjoy the coffee's flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Coffee Brewing Parameters:

FrontStreet Coffee chose: KONO dripper, 88°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, 15g of coffee, grind size (75% passing through China No. 20 standard sieve).

Using segmented extraction, bloom with twice the amount of water as coffee grounds—30g water for 30 seconds. Small circular pour until reaching 125g, then continue pouring until reaching 225g, then stop. Remove the dripper when the water finishes dripping. Time from the start of pouring: extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the entire pot of coffee, shake it well, and pour into cups for tasting.

Pulped Natural Brazilian Cerrado coffee bean flavor: Distinct sweetness on entry, with light lemon aroma, rich nutty flavors, and prominent dark chocolate notes in the finish, overall feeling rather round.

Natural Process Brazilian Queen Farm coffee bean flavor: Balanced mouthfeel, with almond and cocoa as the main notes, highlighting cane sugar sweetness—a full-bodied coffee with abundant sweetness.

For hand-brewed coffee, FrontStreet Coffee is quite particular because different coffee beans and different roast levels require different equipment and water temperatures, which is why friends might say that the coffee brewed by FrontStreet Coffee's baristas tastes better than what they brew at home. Of course, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, Brazilian coffee mostly appears as blend beans. If you want to try blended coffee, you can certainly experience the flavor! FrontStreet Coffee has basic blends, premium blends, and commercial blends. Additionally, if you want single-origin coffee, FrontStreet Coffee can also satisfy everyone because FrontStreet Coffee has over fifty different single-origin coffees from various regions for everyone to choose from!

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473