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Characteristics and Flavor Profile of Brazilian Coffee: Varieties and Brewing Methods

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and has been the world's largest coffee producer for the past 150 years. One-third of the world's coffee comes from Brazil, followed by Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia. Just the annual production from the southeastern Minas Gerais province (20 million bags)

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

Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and has been the world's largest coffee producer for the past 150 years. One-third of the world's coffee comes from Brazil, followed by Vietnam, Colombia, and Indonesia. The annual production of just the southeastern Minas Gerais province (20 million bags) already surpasses the entire national capacity of neighboring Colombia (approximately 10 million bags). Additionally, São Paulo, Espírito Santo, Bahia, and other regions are also specialty coffee producing areas. Among these, Sul de Minas (southern Minas Gerais) has accounted for 90% of the national top 20 award-winning coffees in the Cup of Excellence (COE) over the past two years.

A tropical rainforest nurtured by the Amazon River, sparsely populated for thousands of years. However, since the economic incentives of coffee exports in the 18th century, Brazil's original ecosystem has gradually transformed into mechanized agricultural plantations. This history is said to have begun when an army colonel seduced the French governor's wife in 1723 to obtain seeds. After experiencing black slavery and later European immigrant land allocation systems, Brazil's coffee production capacity once reached half of the world's demand. However, with the collapse of commodity markets and excessive production stimulation leading to "soil fatigue" (as Brazilian farmers call it), coupled with the recent rise of the specialty coffee movement, farmers have shifted their focus from quantity to quality.

Nearly all espresso blends contain Brazilian coffee, some even up to 90% Brazilian coffee. Brazilian coffee is also found in many well-known commercial coffee brands and canned coffees, demonstrating the important role Brazil plays in the coffee industry. Although Brazilian coffee is widely distributed in the commercial coffee market, this doesn't mean it cannot compete in the specialty market. Brazilian coffee with dark city roast and Vietnamese-style roast is quite delicious. Furthermore, high-quality natural and honey-processed Brazilian coffees are often固定班底 in espresso blends, providing more crema, rich mouthfeel, and a touch of sweetness, making them quite powerful supporting coffees in blends.

Brazilian Coffee Flavor Profile

Brazilian coffee is wild, sweet, and low in acidity, with bitterness within the sweetness and chocolate-roasted flavors. However, its green beans are not dense, and the growing altitude is not as high as typical Central American coffee beans, so extremely dark roasting can bring out some bitter flavors. Additionally, three different processing methods give Brazilian coffee diverse flavor profiles: natural processing has rich mouthfeel, chocolate flavor, and some fruit aroma, possibly with some earthy notes; honey processing is done when the outer skin is removed while retaining the inner parchment and pulp, then dried on patios or raised beds. This processing method yields coffee flavors similar to fully natural processing but with a cleaner mouthfeel; semi-washed processing uses pulp removers to screen out the skin and some or all of the pulp, so semi-washed flavors have characteristics of both honey processing and washed processing - clean, balanced, lighter mouthfeel, less chocolate flavor, and brighter acidity.

Brazilian Coffee Grading System

The Brazilian coffee grading system evaluates defect ratios, size, flavor, and cup quality scores, using its own independent grading system that is more complex than those of other countries. For example, "Brasil Santos NY 2 SC17/18 SS FC" - NY2 is the defect ratio grading: larger numbers indicate higher defect ratios. The sequence is 2, 2/3, 3, 3/4... NY indicates it's based on New York grading standards. SC 17/18 represents the coffee bean size. SS FC (Strictly Soft and Fine Cup) indicates flavor and cup quality, divided into two groups: the first group includes Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hard, Hardish, Rioy/Rioysh, Rio; the second group is divided into Fine Cup and Good Cup. Brazilian coffee's main characteristics are high sweetness, clean, smooth, and low acidity, making it quite versatile and widely loved by the general public.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Suggestions for Brazilian Coffee:

V60/1:15/88℃/Time: 1 minute 50 seconds

Flavor: Chocolate, creamy peanut, genmaicha (brown rice tea)

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse varieties of beans, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com