Brazil Sao Silvestre Estate | Honey Process | Brazilian Coffee Estate Brazilian Coffee Brand

Fazenda Sao Silvestre

Flavor: peanut butter pie, raspberry, pear.

The cup is equal parts peanut butter pie and the point where chocolate, vanilla, and honey meet: rose-like florals, caramel, candied orange, a medium body, a smooth and very clean texture, malty sweetness, and mild acidity.

Coffee Details

• Country: Brazil
• Region: Cerrado, Minas Gerais
• Town: Serra do Salitre
• Farm: Fazenda Sao Silvestre
• Farmers: Ismael and Eduardo Andrade
• Altitude: 1250 meters
• Variety: Bourbon
• Processing: Honey process

Meet Ismael and Eduardo Andrade

Ismael Andrade and his family have been growing coffee since 1901. With more than 100 years of accumulated expertise behind them, Ismael and his brother Eduardo have poured that knowledge into Fazenda Sao Silvestre over the past 25 years. The 600-hectare farm, rich in volcanic soil, is one of several holdings owned by the Andrade family, and Brazilian law has led them to set aside more than 100 hectares as permanent natural forest reserve.

The Andrades helped establish the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association (BSCA). They pursue excellence on their own land by pairing meticulous crop planning and management with careful on-farm processing, followed by analysis in their on-site BSCA cupping laboratory. The resulting award-winning coffees represent the best of Brazilian coffee.

Minas Gerais, Brazil

For a sense of scale, take the size of Texas, multiply it by 3, and you have the Cerrado, one of the most biodiverse savannas in the world. For coffee drinkers, though, Cerrado means a region in western Minas Gerais. Its clay mineral soil demands consistent fertilization, but coffee plants love the hot, humid summers and the pleasant, dry winters.

Cerrado de Minas, also called West Minas or the Triangulo Mineiro, was the first coffee-producing region in Brazil to earn a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). Coffees from here, typically naturally processed, are balanced with a creamy body and caramel-chocolate notes. Although coffee only arrived in Cerrado about 40 years ago, 90% of the farms are medium-sized, between 2 and 300 hectares, or large plantations. Brazilian forest law now requires farmers to set aside 35% of their land for conservation.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Brazil's strength is balance, and the honey process at Fazenda Sao Silvestre is a good illustration of what that looks like in a single-farm lot. If you want an easy first taste of the country, FrontStreet Coffee's Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic Brazilian single-origin. It comes from the well-known Cerrado growing region, is a common red Bourbon, and is roasted medium to bring out cream, peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut. The body is round rather than sharp, with almost no acidity and a light bitterness, and it works as pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, or French press.

For something rarer from the same country, FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Farm lot comes from Mogiana, close to South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil feeds the fruit and builds a full aroma. The variety here is the uncommon Yellow Bourbon, a natural mutation of Red Bourbon that tends to taste cleaner and fruitier. Whether brewed as pour-over, in a moka pot, or on a home espresso machine, it shows a sugarcane sweetness that is hard to find elsewhere, alongside fruit and chocolate.

Brazil also underpins most of FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blends, because its low acidity, balance, and friendly price make it a natural base. FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend, Premium Blend, and Black Cocoa Blend, along with FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend built for cafes, all include Brazilian coffee. Beyond contributing chocolate and cream aromas, the Brazilian component softens the sweet-sour-bitter balance, which in turn makes extraction more stable.