Which Brazilian Coffee Brands Taste the Best? Where Are Brazil's Four Major Coffee Growing Regions Located?

Thanks to its high production volume, Brazilian coffee has maintained the top ranking in coffee exports for over a century. Most specialty coffee shops stock at least one Brazilian single-origin coffee or an espresso blend containing Brazilian coffee, demonstrating its significant impact on the entire coffee industry. In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will share relevant knowledge about Brazilian coffee.

The Story of Brazilian Coffee

The earliest recorded history of coffee cultivation in Brazil dates back to the eighteenth century. At that time, Brazil belonged to Portugal. Francisco Palheta, a Portuguese captain from Brazil, captured the heart of the governor's wife of Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, and brought coffee seeds from there to Brazil.

Coffee quickly adapted to Brazil's local environment, gradually spreading from the north to the southeastern state of São Paulo, where it began to be widely cultivated. By 1845, Brazilian coffee production accounted for 45% of the world's coffee, becoming São Paulo's primary source of economic income.

Brazilian Coffee Growing Regions

According to data from the Brazilian Coffee Association, more than 14 states in the country produce coffee, with 7 states accounting for nearly 90% of the total production. As we can observe from the map, the western region primarily grows Robusta varieties, while the higher-quality Arabica is mainly concentrated in the southeast. Here, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce two representative coffee regions: Minas Gerais (MINAS GERAIS) - Brazil's largest coffee-producing area, and São Paulo (SÃO PAULO) - Brazil's earliest coffee cultivation region.

The state of Minas Gerais produces nearly half of the country's total annual coffee beans and includes four major producing regions: Cerrado, Sul de Minas, Chapada de Minas, and Matas de Minas. The Cerrado region, sharing its name with the vast savanna, specifically refers to the Cerrado area in western Minas Gerais for coffee production. Its flat terrain and concentrated harvest season are highly suitable for large-scale managed harvesting. Many exporters have established coffee farms here, with most plantations covering over 10 hectares. The other three regions, due to their varied topography with steep hills, primarily rely on small-scale manual production by family farmers.

São Paulo state encompasses the well-known Brazilian coffee region Mogiana. The area's name comes from the Mogiana Railroad Company, which established the "coffee railway" in 1883. This also led to the development of better transportation methods, further expanding coffee production in the region. The Mogiana region has an altitude of 900-1,100 meters, with an average annual temperature of about 20°C. Its hilly terrain gives coffee a pleasant sweetness and balance. Due to the topography, farms primarily use manual harvesting. The Queen Estate coffee on FrontStreet Coffee's menu comes from Mogiana.

Queen Estate (Fazenda Rainha) is one of Brazil's top-tier specialty estates. As a winning estate in the first Brazil Cup of Excellence competition, its capabilities are truly exceptional. Over the years, it has won numerous awards of various sizes, all thanks to the high-quality coffee produced by Queen Estate. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Queen Estate coffee is selected from the Yellow Bourbon variety. Yellow Bourbon is a variant of the Bourbon variety cultivated in Brazil, where its recessive genes cause the cherries to turn yellow. Yellow Bourbon coffee beans are inherently sweet, clean, well-balanced, and have tropical fruit aromas.

Brazilian Coffee Green Bean Processing

Located in the tropical zone, Brazil experiences its harvest season during the dry season, allowing coffee cherries to be naturally dehydrated and dried in the sun. However, traditional natural processing is quite crude, with cherries being dumped directly on muddy ground for drying, often resulting in coffee with earthy flavors. To improve coffee quality, Brazil invented the pulped natural method in the 1990s, also known as semi-washed processing.

Processing method: After harvesting, coffee cherries are first sorted to remove leaves, stones, and other impurities, then poured into water tanks where floating cherries (indicating insufficient maturity) are removed. Machines are used to remove the skin, pulp, and part of the mucilage layer, followed by one hour of washing. Due to the short soaking and fermentation time, not all mucilage can be washed away. The parchment beans with some remaining mucilage are then spread on drying patios to dry.

The pulped natural method not only saves water resources but also reduces labor costs. Compared to traditional natural processing, it also requires less drying time, making it widely used in Brazil. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado daily coffee uses pulped natural processing, with multiple screening stages that significantly improve the cleanliness of the coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's other Queen Estate coffee beans use refined small-batch natural processing. Large-scale production can result in over-fermentation due to insufficient turning, creating undesirable fermented flavors. Queen Estate's entire drying process takes place on African raised beds, avoiding earthy and fermented flavors, with sweetness that exceeds traditional pulped natural processing.

Processed Brazilian green coffee beans are graded according to three different standards: defects, size, and cupping quality. This is part of Brazil's complex grading system, which differs from other coffee-producing countries. Green coffee grade information is marked on jute bags in the format: "Country + Defect Grade + Cupping Quality + Size + Cupping Flavor Grade + Origin."

For example, the bags of Brazilian Cerrado green coffee beans purchased by FrontStreet Coffee are marked "Brazil NY.2 SC – 17/18 FC Cerrado," which means they come from the Brazilian Cerrado region, are sized 17-18 screen, with SC representing Strictly Soft (very smooth口感), FC representing Fine Cup (excellent cupping flavor quality), and defect grade NY.2. Since NY.1 indicates completely defect-free beans, such selected batches cannot be stably supplied, so Brazil has established NY.2 as the highest grade in the defect classification system.

Brazilian Coffee Flavor Characteristics

Classic Brazilian coffee has base flavors of nuts, cocoa, chocolate, and toast. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's two Brazilian coffee beans both use medium-dark roasting to highlight their rich, low-acidity characteristics.

Some customers find that the flavor differs when they brew coffee at home compared to what they taste in the shop. FrontStreet Coffee includes a QR code about brewing on each coffee bean bag label. Scanning it provides brewing parameters that everyone can reference for adjustments. Below, using Brazilian Queen Estate coffee as an example, FrontStreet Coffee will explain the brewing approach of FrontStreet Coffee's barista.

FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Estate coffee uses a medium-dark roast level. Medium roasting significantly changes the internal structure of the beans, making them more porous and increasing the water absorption capacity of the ground coffee. If brewing parameters are not properly adjusted, the coffee can easily become over-extracted and bitter. To achieve sufficient aroma without over-extraction, it's necessary to reduce the extraction rate. FrontStreet Coffee uses slightly lower water temperature and coarser grind size to reduce the release of bitter macromolecules from the coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's barista consistently uses the KONO dripper to extract coffee beans that express richness. The KONO dripper's only exhaust area is the one-quarter rib section. When the water level rises above the rib section, the water volume in the dripper continuously increases, creating pressure through the weight of the water. Since the outlet is relatively small, it extends the contact time between coffee particles and water. As water flows through, it more effectively extracts soluble substances, thereby enhancing the coffee's rich, full-bodied taste.

Pour-over parameters: 87-88°C water temperature, medium grind (70% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve), coffee powder: 15g, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, three-stage pour.

Use twice the amount of water as the coffee powder to wet the coffee bed, forming a dome and let it bloom for 30 seconds. Then use a small water stream to pour in a circular motion from inside to out until reaching 125g, then pause. Wait until the coffee bed drops to half the height of the dripper, then continue with the same fine stream to pour the third stage to 225g. Remove the dripper once all coffee liquid has filtered through, taking about 2 minutes total. Finally, shake the coffee in the server to evenly mix before enjoying.

The pour-over Brazilian Queen Estate coffee is overall rich and full-bodied with a clean taste. The flavors vary with temperature changes, showing layered complexity. It has nut and caramel aromas, with chocolate, nut, and caramel notes. The sweetness of sugarcane is very pleasant, and it has high balance.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473