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Brazil Coffee from Cerrado Mineiro Estate

The dry aroma opens with fresh citrus and pomelo, woven through with delicate hazelnut and caramel, and closing on a faint hop note. On the palate it drinks like a glass of sweet orange juice. Cream and pomelo linger while the cup is hot, and as it cools the aromatics shift toward grapefruit and lime. Golden kiwi and a gentle acidity come through as well, while the caramel finish leaves the whole cup richer, clearer and more refined.

The Pulped Natural Method

Brazilian coffee is mostly handled with the pulped natural method. After harvest, the fruit runs through a depulper that strips away the skin and most of the pulp, and the beans are then dried on raised beds. The small amount of pulp left behind lifts the sweetness of the finished coffee.

Harvesting and Processing, Step by Step

(1) Coffee cherries are picked by hand. The estate sits on high-altitude mountain slopes, so only ripe cherries are harvested manually. Beyond hand-picking, the trees are given generous room and are never planted densely. They grow tall, with branches spreading over a wide area. As specialty coffee has raised its quality bar, manual picking alone is no longer enough — the cherries gathered must also be at just the right stage of ripeness.

(2) At the plantation's receiving and processing station, cherries arrive twice a day and are washed, pulped and spread out the same day. When the semi-washed (pulped natural) route is used, the work has to run continuously, and these steps are concentrated at a sister estate, Fazenda do Sertão.

(3) Once received, the cherries are washed, depulped and washed again. That same day they are spread across concrete patios to begin drying.

(4) The second drying stage uses mechanical dryers, followed by the crucial resting period. The aim is even drying down to a moisture content of 11%–10.5%. A special premium batch from the 2008–2009 harvest, for example, could not be entered in the Cup of Excellence because of this resting process — which is precisely how it became available to us.

(5) The beans rest in their parchment for 30 days to lock in quality stability.

(6) They are then transported to the cooperative for post-drying processing and grading. The cooperative owns precision density graders and electronic color sorters for exactly this work.

(7) Quality control is continuous: process management and quality supervision run at every stage, and each harvested and processed batch is labeled independently with comments and samples from the cooperative's cuppers. Buyers of each batch — foreign roasters — have that information on hand for discussion and comparison.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

How to Brew Brazil Coffee from Cerrado Mineiro Estate

FrontStreet Coffee pour-over reference: weigh 15g of Cerrado Mineiro Estate coffee and grind it medium. The particles should be a touch coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder at setting 6A (50% standard sieve pass rate), a water temperature of 88°C, a Kono or Kalita dripper, and a coffee-to-water ratio of roughly 1:14.

Pour the hot water from the gooseneck kettle in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the dripper. Start the timer as you begin. Within 15 seconds, bring the brew to 30g, then stop pouring. At the 1-minute mark, pour again. As before, pour in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the dripper. Keep the stream off the spot where the coffee bed meets the filter paper to avoid channeling.

Leave a ring when you reach the outermost edge of the coffee bed, then work back toward the center circle by circle. At 2 minutes and 10 seconds the brew should reach 210g, completing the pour.

Japanese-Style Iced Pour-Over — Cerrado Mineiro Estate

FrontStreet Coffee iced pour-over reference for Cerrado Mineiro Estate:

Brazil Coffee from Cerrado Mineiro Estate, medium-dark roast, BG grinder setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate)

20g coffee, 150g ice cubes, 150g hot water. The water should be 1°C hotter than the 88°C used for a normal pour-over. Normal grinding uses a Fuji 3.5 setting, while iced pour-over calls for slightly finer — Fuji setting 3. Recommended coffee-to-(water + ice) ratio of 1:15.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Pulse pouring: a first segment of 60g and a second of 40g. Use a fairly fine but tall water column and stir firmly so the coffee bed rolls completely. Be careful not to let the water level rise too high, and avoid hitting the edge of the filter paper.

The full extraction takes about 2.5 minutes, similar to the normal 20g brew.

Related reading: An Introduction to Brazil Cerrado Mineiro Coffee — how Cerrado became synonymous with Brazilian specialty coffee

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Cerrado's pulped natural coffees are known for a rounded, nutty sweetness, and FrontStreet's Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic single-origin expression of that style. Grown in the well-regarded Cerrado region from the red Bourbon variety common across South America, it is roasted medium and pours out rich aromas of cream peanut, toast, caramel and hazelnut. The body is smooth with no sharp acidity and just a light bitter edge, and it works as well in a pour-over as it does in a moka pot, as an espresso SOE, or in a siphon or French press.

If you prefer a slightly sweeter Brazilian cup, FrontStreet's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon comes from Mogiana, close to South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil feeds the fruit and builds its aroma. A rare yellow Bourbon that grew out of a red Bourbon mutation, it brings a cleaner fruit character, with the sugarcane sweetness, fruit and chocolate notes that set it apart from other regions.