Is UCC Ueshima Santos No.2 Coffee Delicious_UCC Pour-Over Coffee Bean Recommendations

[Brazilian Coffee - Santos No.2 Red Bourbon]

Brazilian Santos No.2 is one of Brazil's signature coffee beans, and the Red Bourbon we sourced this time is every bit as popular and highly regarded as the Yellow Bourbon variety.

It may not have Yellow Bourbon's bold personality, but it makes up for that with a rich, mellow body, elegant acidity, and gentle sweetness—a well-balanced coffee that drinks beautifully on its own.

It also works as an excellent base for rounding out and complementing the flavors of other coffees, and we expect it to become an outstanding choice down the road.

Santos is a port city in São Paulo, and coffee beans are often named after the ports they ship from. "No.2" refers to a grade in the evaluation system. Beans with defects—unripe beans, insect-damaged or broken beans—are treated as foreign matter and counted as impurities. Grades from No.2 down to No.6 are assigned according to how much impurity is present. A No.1 rating would mean a state with absolutely no impurities, which is virtually impossible to achieve.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameter Recommendations:

How to Brew Brazilian Coffee [Santos No.2] Perfectly?

FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over reference: weigh out 15g of [Santos No.2] coffee, then grind to a medium setting. The grounds should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder set to 6A (50% pass rate on the standard sieve), a water temperature of 88°C, and a Kono or Kalita dripper, with a recommended coffee-to-water ratio of about 1:14.

Pour hot water from the kettle in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the dripper, and start the timer as soon as you begin. Within 15 seconds, build the brew up to 30g, then stop pouring. When the clock reaches 1 minute, begin the second pour, again in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the dripper. Avoid pouring directly onto the spot where the coffee bed meets the filter paper, which can cause channeling.

When you reach the outermost ring of coffee grounds, leave a small margin, then keep circling back toward the center. At 2 minutes and 10 seconds, the brew should reach 210g, and the process is complete.

Japanese-Style Iced Pour-Over [Santos No.2]

FrontStreet Coffee's iced pour-over [Santos No.2] reference:

Brazilian coffee [Santos No.2], medium-dark roast, BG grinder setting 5R (60% pass rate on the standard sieve).

20g coffee, 150g ice cubes, 150g hot water. The water temperature should be 1°C higher than the standard pour-over recommendation of 88°C. For a normal grind, use a Fuji grinder setting of 3.5. For iced pour-over, grind slightly finer by half a setting—Fuji grinder setting 3. Recommended powder-to-(water+ice) ratio: 1:15.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Pour in stages: 60g of water in the first stage, 40g in the second. Use a fairly fine but tall stream and pour with some force to stir and agitate the grounds, so the coffee bed rolls fully. Just be careful not to let the water level climb too high or spill onto the edge of the filter paper.

Total extraction time should be about 2.5 minutes (similar to a normal brew for 20g of coffee).

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you want to explore Brazilian coffee without overthinking it, start with FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon, a classic single-origin Brazilian bean. Cerrado is a well-known producing region prized for high-quality beans, and this lot is a Red Bourbon, a variety common across South America. Roasted to a medium level, it opens up with creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut aromas, a round and smooth body, no real acidity, and a gentle touch of bitterness.

Another Brazilian option is FrontStreet Coffee's Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon, grown in Mogiana near South Minas. The region's fertile red volcanic soil feeds the fruit with plenty of nutrients, which translates into a full, generous aroma. The farm's Yellow Bourbon—a natural mutation of Red Bourbon—brings a cleaner fruit character. Whether you brew it as pour-over, in a moka pot, or on a home espresso machine, it shows a sugarcane-like sweetness that other regions rarely offer, alongside fruit and chocolate notes.

Because of its low acidity, balance, and approachable price, Brazil is also a favorite building block for espresso blends. FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend, its nutty Signature Blend, and its balanced Dark Cocoa Blend all include Brazilian beans, which add chocolate and cream notes together with a soft sweet-bitter balance that helps keep extraction consistent.