Three Essential Brewing Points for Drip-Style Pour-Over Bags | Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Methods | Drip Coffee Characteristics

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Nowadays, more and more people have developed a daily coffee drinking habit. But for those who don't work in coffee shops, how can they enjoy coffee anytime? This is when FrontStreet Coffee's barista brings out the drip coffee bag! Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share the story behind their seasonal drip coffee—Brazil Red Bourbon Coffee Beans—and the brewing techniques for drip bags.

Brazil: The World's Largest Coffee Producer

Brazil is the world's largest coffee-producing country. Coffee is mostly grown in plains or highland tropical savanna climate zones, with an average annual temperature of about 20°C. The excellent climate and mostly flat geographical conditions allow Brazil to cultivate coffee on a large scale, using mechanical harvesting of coffee cherries. As you can imagine, the production volume is naturally astonishing.

Impact of 2020 Drought on 2021-2022 Brazilian Coffee Production

In addition to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Brazilian coffee sales in 2020, this year's drought in Brazil has significantly reduced the production of Brazilian Arabica coffee beans. Brazil risks repeating the 2014 drought disaster. According to financial networks and foreign media reports, after seeing various articles and pictures about the Brazilian drought online, renowned soft commodities expert Judith Ganes visited Brazil for field investigation in December, spending 7 days in Brazil's largest coffee-producing region—Minas Gerais state.

Ganes pointed out that although it's currently impossible to estimate the specific production volume of Brazilian Arabica coffee for next year, at the estates I visited, some areas might see damage reaching 30%, some 50%, and some even as high as 100% (Editor's note: damage doesn't directly mean production reduction, but rather the planting area affected by drought). At the same time, Ganes also stated: "In my 30+ years in the coffee industry, the situation at some estates shocked me—I've never seen anything so terrible. The production reduction effect brought by the drought will not only affect 2021 but could also impact 2022."

During the 7-day trip, except for the Mogiana and Cerrado coffee-growing areas which fared slightly better due to well-developed irrigation systems and timely pruning, with expected production reduction only between 10% to 30% (much of which is also due to the off-year cycle), other areas are concerning. Especially in the Varginha (MG) and Três Pontas (MG) regions, it's impossible to "find perfect coffee crops."

Brazil Cerrado Coffee Region

FrontStreet Coffee uses coffee beans from the Brazil Cerrado region for their Brazilian drip coffee. Not all coffee grown on the Cerrado savanna can be called Cerrado coffee—only those from 1100-1300m altitude areas, which represent the essence of the Cerrado savanna, can bear this name. With high altitude and fertile soil, FrontStreet Coffee believes that coffee beans from this region produce coffee that is refreshingly sweet, with full body and no earthy taste.

Affected by the drought, Coffee New Selection, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, stated: "Due to the outlook of low production and optimistic sentiment about vaccination boosting coffee demand prospects, we believe coffee futures prices will rise in the first half of next year. They might return from the current about $1.23 to between $1.40 to $1.50 per pound." However, despite this, FrontStreet Coffee's seasonal drip coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian daily bean prices will remain at their original prices, hoping that more friends can learn about Brazilian coffee beans.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Varieties—Red Bourbon

The Bourbon variety is a subspecies that mutated from Typica, belonging to the oldest existing coffee varieties along with Typica. When green cherries mature, they display a bright red color. Compared to Typica, Bourbon plants have broader leaves and grow more densely. Although the yield is higher than Typica, the harvest cycle is also 2 years, making it a low-yield variety. However, it offers excellent quality with wine-like acidity and sweet aftertaste.

The coffee beans are large in size, uniform, and evenly colored with a glossy appearance. For harvesting convenience, farmers prune coffee trees to not exceed 150cm in height. Generally, after Red Bourbon coffee trees flower and fruit, the color changes of coffee cherries follow: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker red when fully ripe. Therefore, some people call it "Red Bourbon variety," but Red Bourbon is actually what we generally call the Bourbon variety. Bourbon grown at high altitudes typically has better aroma and brighter acidity, sometimes even displaying wine-like flavors.

Brazilian Semi-Washed Processing Method

The semi-washed processing method is a technique between natural and washed processing methods, which can be divided into two categories: pulped natural and honey processing. These two processing methods are basically very similar—both first remove the outer skin of coffee cherries like washed processing, but skip the "fermentation in water tanks, rinsing with clean water" process of washed processing, going directly to sun drying. Although the methods seem similar, an important difference between them creates two very different flavors, worth explaining separately.

This processing method uses much less water than washed processing, and some steps resemble washed processing (removing skin and pulp) while others resemble natural processing (no tank fermentation), so it's also called semi-washed method. The introduction of semi-washed processing doesn't mean all Brazilian regions use it. The lower humidity Cerrado region still mainly uses natural processing, with semi-washed processing playing a supporting role. However, the Red Bourbon from the Cerrado region that FrontStreet Coffee acquired uses semi-washed processing.

How to Brew FrontStreet Coffee Drip Coffee Bags?

Drip coffee is super convenient—just open the package and pour hot water to enjoy your coffee. However, there's actually some knowledge hidden in how to brew drip coffee properly. Next, let FrontStreet Coffee guide you through using drip bags to brew a cup of coffee that's as good as one from a coffee shop.

1. Open FrontStreet Coffee's individually packaged drip coffee bag and find the section marked "OPEN HERE" with a dotted line.

2. Tear along the OPEN dotted line and hang the drip coffee bag on your favorite cup or container.

3. Prepare a pot of 91°C drinking water. FrontStreet Coffee's drip coffee bags contain 10g net weight. FrontStreet Coffee suggests a brewing ratio of 1:15 for drip coffee bags, so we recommend adding 150ml of water for the best flavor.

4. For the first pour, use a circular motion to evenly wet the entire coffee grounds layer in the drip bag (about 20ml of water), then stop pouring and wait for 20 seconds.

5. After 20 seconds, continue pouring in a circular motion until reaching 150ml.

6. Finally, remove and discard the drip coffee bag. You can add milk or sugar according to your taste preference.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473