Brazilian Coffee Bean Varieties and Major Growing Regions | Flavor Profile and Pour-Over Recommendations for Sun-Dried Bourbon Coffee Beans

What stage does everyone's understanding of Brazilian coffee beans remain at? The notorious "Rio beans," the world's largest coffee-producing country, or one of the founding countries of the Cup of Excellence (COE). These undoubtedly represent the developmental history of Brazilian coffee. What impression does today's Brazilian coffee give? FrontStreet Coffee will express this through several articles about Brazilian coffee.

Brazilian Coffee Planting History

Brazil is located in the Western Hemisphere's Latin American region, situated in eastern South America on the western coast of the Atlantic Ocean. On land, except for Ecuador and Chile, it borders all countries on the South American continent; the vast majority of its territory lies between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn, making it the country with the most extensive tropical range in the world. One-third of its territory has a tropical rainforest climate, while two-thirds has a tropical savanna climate. The superior tropical natural conditions are very suitable for the growth and production of tropical economic crops like coffee.

Brazilian coffee was introduced to Brazil from French Guiana in the 1720s. A Portuguese captain from Brazil, Francisco Palheta, captured the heart of the governor's wife of Cayenne, the capital of French Guinea at that time, successfully bringing coffee seeds into Brazil. From then on, coffee rapidly adapted in Brazil, spreading from the north to the southeastern state of São Paulo and the southern state of Paraná, where the latitude is slightly higher and winter frosts occur, causing serious losses for coffee farmers.

From 1970 to 1980, Brazilian farmers developed the warmer northern regions of São Paulo state, including Minas Gerais and Bahia, where winters are warm and frost-free. To this day, Minas Gerais has become one of Brazil's main specialty coffee-producing regions.

Before 1990, the Brazilian government strictly monitored the coffee industry, with both harsh interference and price protection measures. Moreover, the state consistently implemented minimum price protection measures for farmers, leading to coffee overproduction.

Since the opening of the free market in 1990, the original "Brazilian Coffee Institute" (IBC) was replaced by the state's non-investing administrative body - the National Economic Association, which pursued a non-interference policy, allowing producers and exporters to negotiate directly. Export business activities are supervised by government legislation, and relevant departments register legitimate exporters. From three hundred years ago to the present, coffee has become Brazil's most important economic source, while Brazil has also become the world's largest coffee-producing country.

What Coffee Varieties Exist in Brazil?

As the mainstay of American coffee, countless coffee varieties have spread from Brazil to various Latin American countries. Among them are familiar varieties such as Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, Mundo Novo, and others.

Typica

Typica can be said to be the world's oldest coffee variety. Its flavor quality is unquestionable, but its disadvantages are low yield and poor disease resistance. Brazil first began planting Typica coffee in the 18th century and was also one of the earliest regions in the Americas to cultivate coffee. However, due to its low yield, it later switched to the higher-yielding Bourbon variety in the 19th century. Now, Brazil's Typica is almost gone, making it difficult to achieve significant production.

Bourbon

Bourbon was the second major coffee variety introduced to Brazil, primarily replacing the low-yield Typica. However, its overall yield is only about 30% higher than Typica.

Normal Bourbon coffee beans turn red when mature, while Yellow Bourbon fruits, unlike regular coffee cherries that turn red when ripe, turn yellow. It was first discovered in Brazil in 1930 and is now mainly grown in Brazil. It is generally believed to have mutated from the hybridization of red-fruited Bourbon with a yellow-fruited Typica variant called "Amerelo de Botocatu" (discovered in São Paulo state in 1871). Due to its lower yield and relatively poor resistance to wind and rain, it was not widely cultivated. However, when planted at high altitudes, it exhibits excellent flavor performance and has become more common in recent years.

Caturra

Caturra is a natural variant of Bourbon. It was discovered between 1915 and 1918 in a plantation in Minas Gerais state, Brazil. A group of genes in the Bourbon planted in the plantation mutated, causing the plant to grow smaller (similar to dwarfism). This new coffee variety, expressing a new biological form, was called "Caturra" by locals in Guaraní, meaning "small." Sometimes it is also called "Nanico."

The São Paulo State Agricultural Institute (IAC) in Campinas, Brazil began selection in 1937. The Caturra selection process is called mass selection, meaning selecting a group of individuals based on excellent performance. The seeds from these plants were accumulated to form a new generation, and this process was repeated. Interestingly, this variety was never officially released in Brazil but is already very common in Central America.

Mundo Novo

Mundo Novo is the result of natural hybridization between Bourbon and Sumatran Typica, first discovered in 1943 in Piumhi, São Paulo, Brazil. Mundo Novo was initially planted in the city of Novo Mundo, which is now Urupês.

The first selection of Brazilian Mundo Novo coffee beans was completed between 1943 and 1952. This variety was distributed to coffee growers for cultivation starting in 1952. In the 1960s, Mundo Novo was widely cultivated in Brazil and was hailed as the new hope of the Brazilian coffee industry. Later, in 1977, the Agronomical Institute of Campinas (IAC) released new selections. In Brazil and other South American countries, the Mundo Novo variety has very high commercial value. Mundo Novo also spread to other countries but was not widely cultivated there for various reasons. Mundo Novo coffee plants are tall, with green or brown leaf tips. The overall shape of Brazilian Mundo Novo coffee beans tends to be round with large particles.

Catuai

Catuai - just by hearing the name, one can tell it has a close relationship with Caturra. It is an artificially cultivated hybrid variety developed by the São Paulo State Agricultural Institute (IAC) in Campinas, Brazil, using Mundo Novo and Yellow Caturra, initially called "H-2077." Mundo Novo is the result of natural hybridization between Bourbon and Typica, first discovered in 1943 in Piumhi, São Paulo, Brazil.

Catuai inherits Mundo Novo's attributes of high yield, strong disease resistance, and excellent cup quality, as well as Caturra's attributes of small plant size, high-quality acidity, and sun-dried coffee characteristics. Therefore, Catuai has relatively good disaster resistance capabilities, especially against wind and rain. Due to the smaller plant size, it can be planted at double density during cultivation, and the dwarf plants make pest and disease treatment relatively easy. Catuai grows vigorously with low height but is susceptible to leaf rust disease.

Because this coffee variety is so outstanding, it was named Catuai, meaning "very good" in Guaraní. However, the variety initially called "H-2077" did not perform very well in cupping, only showing excellence in disease resistance, pest resistance, yield, and environmental adaptability.

Maragogipe

Maragogipe, scientifically known as Maragogipe, was first discovered in 1870 in the Maragogipe production region of Bahia state, Brazil, thus using Maragogipe as the name for this unusually large coffee bean variety. Through biological morphological comparison and genetic testing, it was determined that Maragogipe is a natural variant of Typica. Its coffee beans are three times larger than regular Arabica beans.

In addition to large beans, the trunks, branches, and leaves of Maragogipe plants are also larger than ordinary coffee varieties, so the space, nutrients, and resources required for cultivation are greater than those for ordinary coffee varieties. Coupled with difficult care and harvesting, and high time costs (long fruit maturation period, 5 years to bear fruit), few farmers choose to cultivate it. Currently, it is sparsely distributed in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Guatemala. In Brazil, due to its high cultivation costs, only small quantities exist, making it difficult to achieve scale.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Red Bourbon

Country: Brazil
Region: South Minas
Altitude: 1000 meters
Variety: Red Bourbon
Processing: Semi-washed

This Brazilian coffee bean from FrontStreet Coffee comes from Minas Gerais state. The representative coffee-producing regions of Minas Gerais include Cerrado and South Minas, both of which are high-altitude areas. Cerrado is located in the western part of Minas Gerais state, as a flat plateau with altitudes of 750m-1200m. South Minas consists of hilly woodlands at altitudes of 700m-1200m. Since 1999, among the estates that have won in Brazil's Cup of Excellence auction activities, South Minas has the highest number.

Brazil's Invention: Semi-washed Coffee Processing

Before 1990, Brazil almost entirely used rough natural processing methods, which caused Brazilian beans to easily develop woody or earthy flavors because coffee cherries had to undergo two to three weeks of sun exposure. When encountering rain and moisture rebound, moldy flavors would easily develop. To change this situation of relying entirely on weather, in 1990 Brazil leveraged its relatively dry climate characteristics and developed the semi-washed method (Pulped Natural) to shorten processing time.

Semi-washed processing can actually be called semi-washed processing. Its essence is a combination of natural and washed processing. Brazil suffers from water shortages and uncertain flood seasons, making it impossible to guarantee sufficient water supply for full washed processing, while full natural processing cannot guarantee long periods of dry climate. Therefore, utilizing its natural advantages, Brazil created the semi-washed processing method. This processing method greatly reduced water consumption and natural drying time, reversing two hundred years of crude coffee quality in Brazil.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

Brazilian coffee generally grows at altitudes of 1000-1300 meters, so its density is relatively low, moisture content is moderate, bean texture is relatively soft, and the thickness from bean surface to bean core is thin. Therefore, it is not suitable for roasting at too high temperatures, as this would produce burnt bitterness. We use a medium-heat bean-throwing method, maintaining the heat until the dehydration stage. After the first crack begins, we make fine adjustments as the temperature rises to promote more complete caramelization reactions. This semi-washed variety heats up slowly after the first crack, and can be removed from the roaster just before the second crack.

Preheat the roaster to 200°C and load the beans, open the damper to 3. After 30 seconds, start the fire, adjust heat to 160, keep the damper unchanged. Return temperature point at 1'30", maintain heat. At 5'00", beans turn yellow, grassy smell disappears, entering the dehydration stage. Reduce heat to 130, open damper to 4. When reaching 168°C, reduce heat again to 100. At 8'00", dehydration is complete, wrinkles and black patterns appear on the bean surface, toast smell turns to coffee aroma, which is the prelude to the first crack. At this time, pay attention to listen for the sound of the first crack. At 8'50", the first crack begins, open damper fully to 5. After first crack, development time is 3 minutes and 10 seconds. When reaching 190°C, reduce heat to 50, at 194°C reduce again to 30, and remove from roaster at approximately 200°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

Dose: 15g
Water Temperature: 86-88°C
Grind: Medium grind, 70% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction. The bloom water amount is twice the coffee dose, meaning 30 grams of water for a 30-second bloom. After small circular pouring to 125 grams, segment again. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225 grams and stop. The total extraction time is 2 minutes.

Brewing Flavor: High sweetness, clean, smooth, low acidity, with flavors of peanuts, almonds, nuts, and chocolate.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate

Region: Brazil Mogiana Region
Estate: Queen Estate
Altitude: 1400-1950m
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing: Natural processing

The Mogiana region is very close to southern Minas. Coffee is planted among shrubs, grasslands, and other vegetation. In this area, there are many farming families, some of which adopt traditional large-scale farm operations, 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. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that coffee beans produced in this region have a sugar-like sweetness.

Estate Fine Natural Processing

Unlike Brazil's large-scale harvesting and processing, Queen Estate adopts fine natural processing, solving the quality degradation problem caused by Brazil's large-scale centralized processing. At the harvesting level, semi-mechanical harvesting is adopted, which improves harvesting quality while ensuring efficiency. After harvesting is complete, secondary flotation is performed to screen qualified coffee cherries for high-bed natural drying. During this period, manual inspection of drying degree is conducted, and defective fruits are removed. When dried to 12% moisture content, hulling and polishing are performed, and parchment is retained for storage.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Analysis

Although this is also Brazilian coffee, its average growing altitude is higher, so the coffee bean texture will be relatively harder.

Brazil Yellow Bourbon Roasting Suggestion: Yangjia 800N, bean input 550g: Preheat roaster to 200°C and load beans, adjust heat to 150, open damper to 3. Return temperature point at 1'30", maintain heat. At 5'10", beans turn yellow, grassy smell disappears, entering the dehydration stage. Reduce heat to 125, open damper to 3.5. At 8'20", dehydration is complete, wrinkles and black patterns appear on the bean surface, toast smell turns to coffee aroma, which is the prelude to the first crack. When reaching 178°C, reduce heat to 80. At this time, pay attention to listen for the sound of the first crack. At 9'14", the first crack begins, open damper fully to 5. After first crack, development time is 3'00", remove from roaster at 201°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions

Dripper: KONO #01 Dripper
Dose: 15g
Water Temperature: 88°C
Grind: Medium grind, 70% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

Use FrontStreet Coffee's three-stage brewing method. First, preheat the dripper and server. Pour 15 grams of coffee powder and tap gently to make the coffee powder surface even. Begin the first pour, pouring 30 grams of water in a circular motion from the center for a 30-second bloom. The ideal state is that the coffee powder is evenly saturated with water, creating an expanded "coffee burger."

After reaching 30 seconds, begin the second pour. In this stage, the water column height is 3-5cm, pouring 95 grams of water in concentric circles from the center outward. At this moment, the total pour amount is 125 grams. Observe that the coffee liquid surface should be entirely golden coffee foam. When about to expose the coffee bed, begin the final pour. In this stage, pour 100 grams of water, slowly drawing concentric circles while maintaining consistent water flow. When all coffee liquid from the dripper has flowed into the server below, remove the dripper to end extraction. The total time is 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

Flavor: Balanced mouthfeel, with the main notes of almond and cocoa highlighting the sweetness of cane sugar, this is a coffee with good body and abundant sweetness.

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