Major Coffee Growing Regions in Brazil, What Are the Characteristics of Brazilian Coffee?

As the world's largest coffee-producing country, what are the characteristics of Brazilian coffee? As an American coffee bean, Brazilian coffee has a relatively balanced flavor with low acidity and a smooth mouthfeel, making it very suitable for espresso blends. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's basic blend, specialty blend, and commercial blend all use Brazilian beans as their base.

Brazilian coffee is generally grown in relatively flat areas. Although Arabica coffee varieties produce better flavors when grown at high altitudes, Brazil's low elevation means it cannot produce coffee flavors like Panama Geisha. To better adapt to local conditions, Brazilian plantation owners cultivated improved Arabica coffee trees decades ago that don't require high altitudes or shade. These can be planted on plains or grasslands, directly exposed to bright sunlight, unlike traditional high-altitude shade cultivation methods. Low altitude also accelerates coffee cherry ripening, resulting in incomplete flavor development and lower density compared to high-altitude beans. Thanks to the plains' characteristics, large-scale coffee plantations can use mechanical harvesting, saving significant labor costs.

Brazilian coffee beans were introduced from French Guiana (a country in northern South America) in 1720. Brazil was a Portuguese colony at the time, while many other South American countries were Spanish colonies. Therefore, most South American countries speak Spanish, while Brazil speaks Portuguese.

The Portuguese military officer stationed in Brazil, wanting to bring Guiana's coffee beans to Brazil (when exporting coffee to other countries was strictly prohibited), captured the heart of the Guiana governor's wife and successfully brought coffee seeds into Brazil. From then on, coffee quickly adapted in Brazil, spreading from the north to the southeastern state of São Paulo. By 1845, Brazilian coffee beans already accounted for 45% of the world's total coffee beans and became the main economic source of São Paulo state.

Brazilian Coffee Regions

Brazil is located in a tropical region with two main types of terrain for coffee cultivation: Brazilian plateaus above 500 meters altitude and Brazilian plains below 200 meters. Brazil has 21 states, 17 of which produce coffee, but 7 states account for 98% of the total production. These are: São Paulo, Paraná, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rondônia, and Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's main producing regions are Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Bahia, and Espírito Santo, which account for 90% of the country's exports.

Although Brazil remains the world's largest coffee producer to this day, it has never again seen the near-monopoly phenomenon of coffee production like in the 1920s. As coffee exports declined, other regions in Brazil (Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo) surpassed São Paulo, and the Mogiana Railway Company became heavily indebted and was taken over by the government in 1952.

Therefore, Brazil's specialty coffee regions are mainly these three: Mogiana, Cerrado, and South Minas.

Sul de Minas (South Minas) consists of hilly forestland at 700m-1200m altitude, with rolling foothills, rich topography, distinct wet and dry seasons, large day-night temperature differences, and fertile microclimates. It's suitable for cultivating flavorful Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon varieties, naturally becoming a main specialty coffee producing region. Since 1999, the majority of farms winning Brazil's Cup of Excellence auctions have been from South Minas.

Minas Gerais state's annual coffee production is nearly half of the country's total, including four major producing regions: Cerrado, Sul de Minas, Chapada de Minas, and Matas de Minas. The Cerrado region, sharing its name with the Cerrado savanna, specifically refers to the Cerrado area in western Minas Gerais state. The flat terrain and concentrated harvest season are very suitable for large-scale management and harvesting. Many exporters have invested in coffee farms here, with most covering over 10 hectares. The other three regions, due to their varied terrain with steep hills, mainly focus on small-scale manual production by family farmers. The southeastern mountain forest region of Minas Gerais, with altitudes exceeding 1000 meters, also produces high-quality coffee beans. As for other regions of Minas Gerais, such as the central-northern areas, they mostly produce commercial-grade beans.

Cerrado

Minas Gerais state's representative coffee regions include Cerrado and South Minas, both high-altitude areas. Cerrado is located in the western part of Minas Gerais state, a flat plateau at 750m-1200m altitude. The Cerrado region: Cerrado is a vast savanna with the world's most complex biodiversity. However, when it comes to Cerrado's coffee region, not all coffee grown on the savanna is called Cerrado coffee. Only coffee from the prime areas at 1100-1300m altitude can be called Cerrado coffee. With high altitude and fertile soil, FrontStreet Coffee believes the coffee beans from this region are clear and sweet, with high body and no earthy taste. For this reason, FrontStreet Coffee has chosen coffee from Brazil's Cerrado region as the representative of Brazilian coffee.

São Paulo

São Paulo state includes Brazil's well-known coffee region Mogiana, named after the Mogiana Railroad Company, which built the "coffee railway" in 1883. It also promoted better transportation methods, further expanding coffee production. The Mogiana region has altitudes between 900-1100 meters, an average annual temperature of about 20°C, and similar hilly terrain, giving coffee good sweetness and balance. Due to the terrain, farms mainly use manual harvesting. The Queen Farm coffee on FrontStreet Coffee's menu comes from Mogiana, with sweet and clean flavors, good balance, and tropical fruit aromas.

São Paulo state has several well-known coffee regions, mainly represented by Santos and Mogiana. When construction of the Mogiana railway began in 1872, São Paulo's coffee production was less than 20% of Brazil's total. By 1890, thanks to the railway opening, coffee beans from São Paulo could be transported out, and the state's coffee production accounted for 50% of Brazil's total coffee. By 1920, Brazil's coffee production had reached 80% of world coffee production, with half of it coming from São Paulo.

Mogiana

The Mogiana 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. Modern technology combined with mountain coffee cultivation culture produces the highest quality green coffee beans. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that coffee beans from this region have cane sugar-like sweetness. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Farm coffee comes from the Mogiana region.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Grading

Among the many coffee-producing countries in Central and South America, Brazil has relatively low altitudes. Therefore, Brazil doesn't emphasize hard beans that can only grow in high-altitude regions like Colombia and other countries. Instead, Brazilian coffee beans are graded based on four criteria: bean size, defect rate, cupping score, and flavor.

Due to large coffee production and inconsistent bean quality, local inspection agencies take 300-gram samples and grade them according to different standards for raw bean defects, size, and cupping. This is also Brazil's unique grading system, different from other producing countries. Brazilian coffee bean sacks generally have relevant grade information: Country + Defect Grade + Cupping Quality + Size + Flavor + Region. For example, Brazil NY.2 SC – 17/18 FC Cerrado refers to coffee from Brazil's Cerrado region, size 17-18 screen, SC represents Strictly Soft (very smooth), FC represents Fine Cup (excellent cupping flavor), and defect grade NY.2.

Defect grading method: NY.2 follows New York grading standards, classified by defect ratio as NY2, NY2/3, NY3, NY3/4... The smaller the number, the lower the defect rate and higher the grade. Batches with deduction scores below 4 points belong to NY2, the highest grade. Since NY.1 means no defective beans at all, such carefully selected batches cannot be stably supplied, so Brazil sets NY.2 as the highest grade.

Flavor and mouthfeel also have corresponding standard distinctions, with various descriptions based on cupping: Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hard, Rioy. SC (Strictly Soft) has the best mouthfeel. Cupping flavors are divided into Fine Cup, Good Cup, Fair Cup, Poor Cup, and Bad Cup. Fine Cup has the best flavor and highest quality, followed by Good Cup.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Varieties

Brazil grows both Arabica and Robusta coffee beans, with specialty Arabica coffee beans mainly planted in São Paulo and Minas Gerais states. Robusta coffee beans are mainly distributed in Espírito Santo, Bahia, Rondônia, and other states.

Brazil has numerous coffee varieties, with Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Mundo Novo, and Catuai as the main varieties. Bourbon is the most ancient local variety. Bourbon fruits are short and round, with high-density coffee beans. Bourbon grown at high altitudes has high sweetness and bright acidity. Like Typica, Bourbon is also an ancient, excellent variety, with better resistance to leaf rust than Typica and flavors that don't lose to Typica. The biggest commonality between Bourbon and Typica is that they both require shade trees to block sunlight for optimal growth and flavor development, thus having certain environmental requirements.

The Bourbon coffee variety is a subspecies that mutated from the Typica coffee variety. Generally, when referring to Bourbon coffee variety, it defaults to Red Bourbon, named for its red color when mature. Yellow Bourbon doesn't refer to the immature state of Red Bourbon but is a hybrid of Bourbon and a yellow-fruited Typica variant. When mature, the fruit is yellow. Due to its lower yield and less resistance to wind and rain, it hasn't been widely planted.

Common Bourbon flowers turn from green to light yellow, then red, finally to deep red when fully mature, hence called Red Bourbon. There are also Bourbon varieties that don't turn red when mature but instead become rarer yellow or pink colors, namely Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon grown at high altitudes has delicate flavors and has won top honors in Brazil's Cup of Excellence competitions. FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Farm coffee is selected from Yellow Bourbon coffee.

Catuai is a 1950 Brazilian hybrid of Yellow Catuai and Mundo Novo, a dwarf coffee tree that can adapt well to various altitudes. When planted above 800m, the flavor becomes more outstanding. It comes in both red and yellow types.

Mundo Novo is a natural hybrid of Bourbon and Sumatra varieties discovered in Brazil, beginning to be planted around 1950. It has strong environmental adaptability and resistance to pests and diseases. Although a high-yield variety, it grows slowly with relatively large bean sizes. Its disadvantage is tree height over 3 meters (exceeding harvester reach, making it unsuitable for mechanical harvesting), requiring annual pruning of top branches and leaves. Mundo Novo has good balance between acidity and bitterness.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Brazilian pulped natural processing is also called the depulped natural method. Unlike traditional natural processing, pulped natural removes the coffee cherry's skin and pulp, allowing control over the fermentation degree of the mucilage-coated beans after depulping. Traditional natural processing involves drying with the skin and pulp intact, making it impossible to monitor mucilage fermentation. Pulped natural processing is a method between natural and washed processing, but without the "pool fermentation, water rinsing" process of washed processing, instead directly drying in sunlight. Although the methods seem similar, without the fermentation step, the coffee beans' flavor is completely different.

Specialty-grade Brazilian coffee beans have characteristics of low acidity and high body, presenting nut, cocoa, chocolate, and toast flavors after roasting, with smooth, balanced, and clean mouthfeel. Therefore, they are often used in espresso blend formulations, serving as a balancing and supporting role. FrontStreet Coffee's menu has 4 espresso coffee beans, three of which use Brazilian coffee as the base ratio (FrontStreet Coffee Specialty Blend, FrontStreet Coffee Basic Blend, FrontStreet Coffee Commercial Blend), allowing extracted espresso to have rich golden crema and intense roasted hazelnut aroma. Made into Americano, it's mellow and rich, and when combined with milk to make latte, it presents creamy smoothness.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazilian Brewing Parameters:

To showcase Brazilian coffee's balanced and rich flavor characteristics, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using drip extraction (pour-over coffee). FrontStreet Coffee store parameters: Using Kono dripper, water temperature: 88°C, coffee amount: 15g, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, grind size: medium-fine grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve pass rate 75%).

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Cerrado flavor characteristics: nuts, caramel, peanuts, smooth, low acidity, chocolate flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen coffee flavor characteristics: light lemon aroma, rich nut flavors, distinct dark chocolate in the aftertaste, overall rounded feel, cleaner than Brazil Cerrado coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions:

Regardless of coffee variety, to brew a delicious cup of coffee, attention must be paid to coffee bean freshness. FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that coffee bean freshness is greatly related to coffee flavor. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee ships coffee beans roasted within 5 days. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Good Coffee," ensuring every customer who orders receives the freshest coffee. The coffee degassing period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive their coffee, it's at peak flavor.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee kindly reminds: if coffee beans are ground in advance, no further degassing is needed, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide buildup in the packaging can also help coffee flavors become rounded. So you can immediately brew a cup when receiving ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly, as coffee powder oxidizes quickly when exposed to air, meaning coffee flavors dissipate relatively quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better appreciate the coffee's flavors.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

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