How to Brew Brazilian CamoShim Estate Jacu Bird Coffee Pour-Over_Why Pour-Over Bird Coffee Tastes Bitter

Brazil Jacu Bird Coffee

This coffee comes from Brazil and is extracted from the digestive waste of a bird called the Jacu. It is said to be more expensive than civet coffee, with a rich, thick and sweet flavor. By that logic, more and more animal-processed coffees will keep appearing.

The Jacu is a bird native to South America that loves to eat coffee cherries, and the quality of the beans that pass through its digestive system is exceptionally high. Finding droppings that happen to contain undigested coffee cherries is, understandably, a challenge.

For that reason, Jacu bird coffee is produced in even smaller quantities than civet coffee. The price is said to reach over 10,000 yuan for a small package that can only brew a few cups. Unlike civet coffee, this variety currently appears to have no artificial cultivation.

Many people have heard of civet coffee and assumed it was the most expensive, but that is not the case. Civet coffee is produced in many parts of Southeast Asia, including Yunnan in China. An even rarer animal-fermented coffee is Jacu bird coffee, currently produced only by the Camocim Estate farm in Brazil.

History

In the 1960s and 1970s, when Brazil's Camocim farm was still owned by the elderly Sr. Olivar Fontenelle de Araújo, he tried various ways to protect the farm's forests, such as introducing exotic tree species like slash pine and eucalyptus, planting Jacaranda trees from the Bignoniaceae family, and building small reservoirs. This marked the beginning of Camocim's transformation into a modern organic and biodynamic farm.

By the 1980s and 1990s, those efforts began to show results. The farm's ecological environment improved and wildlife increased significantly.

In 1999, to carry on the pioneering spirit of his 92-year-old grandfather, farm owner Sr. Henrique Sloper Araújo decided to introduce organic coffee cultivation, planting coffee on the more suitable mountain slopes.

The coffee growing area at Camocim covers approximately 123.5 acres, or 50 hectares. Although some slash pine was cut, the farm's biodiversity was preserved. Initially coffee was planted mainly in forest clearings and shaded woodland areas. Today coffee is grown only on terrace slopes with natural vegetation. The farm regularly prunes its coffee trees, returning leaves and small branches to the soil as compost to improve organic matter.

Today this organic approach, balancing natural forest and vegetation, has become a model for future environmentally friendly coffee production in Brazil.

Jacu Bird Coffee

Camocim farm, in Pedra Azul, Espirito Santo, Brazil, is famous for its Jacu bird coffee. These birds live in the shade-grown coffee forest and selectively eat ripe coffee cherries, a natural selection process that yields high-quality coffee.

Farm owner Henrique Sloper does not see these cherry-picking birds as pests but as a natural complement to the farm's flora and fauna. Camocim welcomes the Jacu birds, treating them as members of the farm's agricultural ecosystem and its most effective coffee cherry "workers." Once the birds eat ripe cherries and defecate under the trees, farm workers collect the odorless droppings and send them to special drying areas for drying and cleaning until they reach the parchment stage, then store them, a process taking about 3 months. Jacu bird coffee has a pleasant, smooth flavor with subtle nutty sweetness, gentle syrup and black bread aromas, and a hint of black pepper in the aftertaste.

Jacu bird coffee is sweet and full-bodied, and slightly more acidic than the traditional Brazilian coffee produced at Camocim. Without a doubt, it is the rarest coffee in the world.

Key Information About Jacu Bird Coffee

Farm Name: Camocim Estate (Jacu Bird Coffee)

Farm Founder: Olivar Fontenelle de Araújo

Current Farm Owner: Henrique Sloper

Major Region: Espirito Santo

Sub-region: Pedra Azul

Altitude: 400-500 meters above sea level

Annual Rainfall: 1500-2000 mm

Coffee Varieties: Bourbon, Icatu, Catuai

Processing Method: Bird-processed

Drying Method: Sun-dried on drying beds

Flowering Period: August-December

Harvest Period: May-September

Additional Information: Camocim Estate has been certified as an organic ecological farm by Brazil's Instituto Biodinamico do Brazil

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations:

How to Brew Brazilian Coffee [Camocim Estate Jacu Bird Coffee] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-over Reference: Weigh 15 g of Camocim Estate Jacu bird coffee powder and grind it to a medium setting. The particles should be slightly coarser than table salt; we use a BG grinder setting 6A (standard sieve pass rate 50%). Brew at 88C with a Kono or Kalita dripper and a coffee-to-water ratio around 1:14.

With the hot water in the pour-over kettle, draw circles clockwise around the center of the dripper. Start timing when brewing begins. In 15 seconds, brew the coffee to 30 g, then stop pouring. When the time reaches 1 minute, begin the second pour. As before, draw circles clockwise around the center of the dripper, making sure the stream does not hit the connection between the coffee powder and the filter paper, to avoid channeling.

Leave a ring of space when you reach the outermost edge of the coffee bed, then continue circle by circle toward the center. At 2 minutes 10 seconds, brew the coffee to 210 g to complete the brewing.

Japanese-style Ice Pour-over [Camocim Estate Jacu Bird Coffee]

FrontStreet Coffee Ice Pour-over [Camocim Estate Jacu Bird Coffee] Reference:

Brazilian coffee [Camocim Estate Jacu bird coffee], medium-dark roast, BG grinder setting 5R (standard sieve pass rate 60%)

20 g coffee powder, 150 g ice cubes, 150 g hot water. Use water 1C higher than the normal pour-over recommendation of 88C. Normal grinding uses a Fuji 3.5 setting, while ice pour-over uses a slightly finer Fuji 3. The recommended coffee-to-(water + ice) ratio is 1:15.

Bloom with 40 g of water for 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: a first segment of 60 g of water and a second segment of 40 g. Use a relatively fine but high water column to stir forcefully, ensuring the coffee powder rolls fully, while being careful that the liquid level does not get too high and does not hit the edge filter paper.

The entire extraction time should be approximately 2.5 minutes, similar to the normal extraction time for 20 g of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

This Jacu bird coffee is defined by a sweet, full-bodied, low-acid cup, and FrontStreet Coffee's Yunnan small-lot coffee offers a similar profile at an everyday price. Coming from the Baoshan producing area, it is washed and medium roasted, and brews with soft nut and chocolate sweetness plus a light plum acidity, which has made it a friendly first taste of Yunnan coffee for many drinkers.

For a more distinctive, higher-grown Yunnan cup, FrontStreet Coffee's 2013 sun-dried Typica comes from the estate FrontStreet Coffee established in 2013. Typica is one of the oldest and purest Arabica varieties, and after sun drying it gives a full-bodied, more pronounced sweet-tartness with citrus and berry notes, a hint of fermented wine, caramel sweetness and a creamy finish.

Brew either as a pour-over at a 1:14 to 1:15 ratio, with the water at 88C and a medium grind, and pour in stages to keep the sweet, syrupy body that Brazilian-style coffees are known for.