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Coffee Knowledge | What is the Brazilian Coffee Grading System? What are the Highest Grade Brazilian Coffee Beans?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For more professional coffee knowledge and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). When mentioning Brazil, most people think of the kingdom of football. Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth largest country in the world. Brazilian coffee also holds significant weight in the world.

For more specialty coffee knowledge, please follow our official WeChat account: FrontStreet Coffee

Brazil: The Coffee Kingdom

The Latin American country of Brazil is renowned worldwide for its high-quality, aromatic, and mild-flavored coffee. As the world's largest coffee producer and exporter, Brazil has earned the title "Coffee Kingdom." FrontStreet Coffee believes that Brazilian coffee not only has high yield but also exceptionally stable quality. With its balanced flavor profile, it is often used in espresso blends. All three of FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blend beans contain Brazilian coffee.

Brazilian Coffee Regions

Located in the tropics, Brazil has relatively flat terrain with few high-altitude mountain forests. Most coffee is grown in low-altitude areas with non-volcanic soil and minimal shade. This results in disadvantages such as rapid growth of Brazilian coffee beans, large bean size, soft density, and limited flavor variation. Additionally, large-scale machine harvesting of coffee beans at varying maturity levels leads to Brazilian beans not being particularly outstanding in quality.

With the introduction of the specialty coffee concept, many coffee competitions have been established, and the higher-altitude regions in southern Brazil have begun focusing on improving coffee quality. Improvements have been made in various aspects including coffee varieties, cultivation, harvesting, and green bean processing.

Brazilian coffee cultivation is mainly distributed across 7 states, with the southeastern states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo producing the highest quality coffee. Among these, the Cerrado region in Minas Gerais is Brazil's first coffee region to obtain origin certification, producing mostly superior-quality Arabica varieties. As a mature coffee region, Cerrado was the first area in Brazil to commercialize coffee, with many exporters establishing large-scale coffee plantations here. The Brazilian daily bean coffee launched by FrontStreet Coffee is sourced from the famous Cerrado region.

FrontStreet Coffee's Daily Bean Selection

FrontStreet Coffee initially introduced daily beans to help coffee beginners understand the characteristics and properties of different origins, processing methods, and varieties by tasting representative regional flavors, thereby enriching their coffee knowledge. As Brazil is a significant coffee powerhouse, FrontStreet Coffee naturally includes it in its daily bean lineup.

Brazilian Coffee Varieties

Brazilian coffee comes in numerous varieties. Early cultivation primarily focused on the ancient Typica variety, but due to low yield, many coffee farmers abandoned it in favor of higher-yielding varieties. In the mid-19th century, the Bourbon variety was introduced from Réunion Island and began to be widely cultivated.

Like Typica, Bourbon is also an old coffee variety, but with broader leaves, denser growth, and 30% higher yield than Typica. The beans are rounder and shorter, with rich berry acidity, noticeable creamy and sweet aromas, and strong acidity. However, it shares the same disadvantage of poor disease resistance. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado daily bean is made from red Bourbon, which turns red when ripe. Additionally, FrontStreet Coffee's Queen Estate coffee from Brazil's Mogiana region uses the delicate Yellow Bourbon variety, offering mellow flavors with black chocolate and creamy peanut notes.

Processing Methods

The local harvest season in Brazil coincides with the dry season, making it ideal for drying coffee beans using the natural method. Traditional natural processing involves spreading all beans flat on the ground, which can impart earthy and woody off-flavors to the coffee, resulting in inconsistent quality. After 1990, Brazil promoted the pulped natural method (also called semi-washed), which involves removing defective and floating beans in water channels, using machines to peel off the skin, pulp, and some mucilage, followed by washing, and finally drying in the sun or in drying rooms. Compared to the washed method, the pulped natural method saves water and labor, significantly improving the quality of Brazilian coffee and presenting cleaner flavor profiles.

Brazilian Coffee Grading System

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, due to Brazil's focus on mass production, large geographical span, and high volume, using a single standard for grading would lead to inconsistent quality in exported batches. Therefore, Brazilian green coffee is graded based on three main aspects: defect percentage, bean size, and cupping quality.

1. Grading by Defect Percentage

Grading is determined by the number of defective beans per 300 grams using a "point deduction" system. Brazil adopts the New York grading standard (NY), which classifies based on defect percentage into NY2, NY2/3, NY3, NY3/4, etc. Smaller numbers indicate lower defect rates and higher grades, with batches scoring below 4 points classified as NY2, the highest grade. Since NY.1 refers to beans with no defects at all, such meticulously selected batches cannot be consistently supplied, so Brazil sets NY.2 as the highest grade.

2. Coffee Bean Size (Screen Size)

Size is determined by screening using sieves based on 1/64 inch increments, with sizes ranging from 14 to 20. The screen size corresponds to the short side (width) of the coffee bean. The largest screen size for Brazilian coffee is 19, but with limited production, so 17/18 screen size is considered the highest grade.

3. Cupping Flavor Profile

After grading by defects and size, Brazilian green coffee beans are roasted and classified based on Cup of Excellence cupping scores, divided into two types:口感 (mouthfeel) and flavor. Based on mouthfeel characteristics, they are classified into five types: Strictly Soft (very smooth), Soft (smooth), Softish (somewhat smooth), Hardish (harsh), and Rioy (iodine-like taste). Cupping flavor grades include: Fine Cup (FC), Fine, Good Cup (GC), Fair Cup, Poor Cup, and Bad Cup. Fine Cup (FC) and Good Cup (GC) are most common.

Combining these aspects, the bag of FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado green beans reads "Brazil NY.2SC – 17/18 FC Cerrado," meaning coffee from Brazil's Cerrado region, with 17-18 screen size, fine cupping quality, very smooth mouthfeel, and NY.2 defect grade.

Brewing Brazilian Coffee

Many friends ask FrontStreet Coffee how to brew medium-dark roast Brazilian coffee beans for the best flavor. FrontStreet Coffee believes that to brew coffee well, one must first understand the characteristics of the coffee itself before setting brewing parameters. You can refer to FrontStreet Coffee's brewing approach.

To extract the various flavors described on the coffee bean packaging, FrontStreet Coffee emphasizes that freshness is crucial. Coffee beans have an optimal flavor window after roasting, and if the peak aroma period has passed, the flavors will be difficult to extract. The beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee are all freshly roasted within 5 days, aiming to ensure that customers can enjoy the complete optimal flavor period.

FrontStreet Coffee typically uses the KONO dripper for extracting medium-dark roast coffee beans. The upper part of the KONO dripper has a smooth curved surface that allows better filter paper adhesion. Compared to the V60 dripper, the extraction method is primarily immersion-based, increasing the overall concentration of the coffee and enhancing its body. Besides KONO, common slow-flow devices like the Kalita wave dripper and flannel filters are also suitable.

Additionally, considering that medium-dark roast coffee has been roasted to a certain degree, the internal structure of the beans is more porous than light roast coffee, resulting in better water absorption. To avoid over-extraction, FrontStreet Coffee chooses a grind size of 75% pass-through rate on a #20 standard sieve, along with 88°C water temperature, combined with FrontStreet Coffee's customary three-stage pouring method.

Hand Brew Parameters:

88°C water temperature, coarse sugar grind size (75% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve), 15g coffee beans, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, three-stage extraction.

First stage: Gently pour 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. Second stage: Pour to approximately 125g, pouring evenly in steady outward circles. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, pour the final stage to 225g. After waiting for all the coffee to drip through, the total extraction time is typically around 2 minutes.

Brewing Flavor:

FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado daily bean offers aromas of nuts, chocolate, and caramel, with a noticeable sweet aftertaste and an overall rounded mouthfeel. The chocolate flavor is stable and persistent.