Characteristics, Flavor Profile, and Brewing Methods for Tijuco Preto Estate Semi-Sun-Dried Coffee Beans from Minas Gerais, Brazil

FrontStreet Coffee often encounters customers asking how to choose coffee beans, because FrontStreet Coffee's physical stores and Tmall store currently display more than 30 varieties of coffee beans, each with different flavor characteristics. Since FrontStreet Coffee offers such a large number of coffee beans to choose from, selection can occasionally be challenging, or customers might be accustomed to a particular coffee bean and want to try other flavors. When FrontStreet Coffee recommends coffee beans, they categorize them into two directions - acidic or mellow - based on customer preferences. Speaking of nutty and chocolate flavors, one must mention Brazilian coffee. When it comes to Brazilian coffee, everyone knows that Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer and also the world's second-largest coffee consumer. So where does Brazilian coffee come from? What are the production regions and famous estates in Brazil? What are Brazil's processing methods? What varieties are mainly grown and how are they graded?

Brazil Coffee History

Brazil's coffee was introduced from French Guiana in 1729. Admittedly, intensive cultivation and improved processing methods with enhanced planting techniques can improve coffee quality to some extent, but Brazil's natural conditions cannot compare with regions that produce the world's finest coffee, because although Brazil has good soil conditions and humid climate, its altitude is not high.

Brazil is the world's largest coffee producing country, with total production ranking first globally, accounting for about 1/3 of the world's total production. The main production areas are concentrated in the central and southern provinces. The regions suitable for coffee cultivation in Brazil have relatively flat terrain, with most coffee plantations located below 1200 meters altitude and without large shade trees. Because ripe and unripe berries are harvested simultaneously, they are not considered specialty coffee. Brazilian coffee quality is average but rarely reaches excellent grades. The beans are relatively soft and clearly不耐火候 during the roasting process. Among the various varieties, Santos is the most famous, named after its export port, Santos. Brazilian coffee beans are neutral in character and can be enjoyed as single-origin (though somewhat monotonous) or blended with other types of coffee beans to create blend coffee. They are generally considered indispensable coffee beans for blending.

Geographical Conditions

Brazilian coffee is generally grown in relatively flat areas. To adapt to local conditions, Brazilian estate operators developed decades ago improved Arabica coffee trees that do not require high altitude and shade, which can be planted on plains or grasslands, directly exposed to the bright sun, unlike traditional higher altitude shade cultivation methods.

Most Brazilian coffee plantations are only a few hundred meters high, and even flat land is used for cultivation without hesitation. This sun-exposed cultivation method allows coffee cherries to grow faster, with less complete flavor development, and the density of the beans, so-called hardness, is not as good as high-altitude beans. The fruit acidity is significantly lower, and the flavor is monotonous. Coastal Rio coffee even has iodine and salty flavors, which are considered results of certain microbial actions, but even when using the same soil for cultivation, this flavor does not necessarily appear every year. Most coffee enthusiasts do not appreciate this flavor, only a few Middle Eastern countries with sugar and boiled coffee habits are particularly suitable for this Rio coffee flavor.

Brazil Coffee Processing Methods

Brazilian coffee simultaneously uses natural, pulped natural, and washed processing methods. The selection method is mainly distinguished by the dry and humidity conditions of farms in various producing regions, thus presenting the best flavors of each producing region, very diverse!

But why do most people still think Brazil mainly uses natural processing?

The main reason is that before 1990, almost all regions in Brazil adopted crude natural processing methods, leading to Brazilian coffee green beans easily having earthy and woody flavors, thus causing poor quality of Brazilian green beans and severely damaging its image.

However, after 1990, Brazil developed the pulped natural method, which not only shortened processing time, increased fruit aroma and sweetness, but also reduced the chance of coffee beans acquiring off-flavors, significantly improving quality, making it very suitable as single-origin coffee for brewing.

FrontStreet Coffee · Brazil Tijuco Preto Pulped Natural Coffee

Origin: Brazil

Region: Carmo De Minas town, Minas Gerais state

Farm: Tijuco Preto

Coffee Variety: Bourbon

Altitude: 1140 meters

Green Bean Processing: Pulped Natural

Coffee Flavor: Sweet with stone fruit, lime peel, and cooking chocolate flavors.

Dry Aroma: Red wine aroma, nuts, sweetness, spices, slight floral notes, sweet pepper

Wet Aroma: Sandalwood, red wine aroma, mango, passion fruit, malt aroma, nuts,仙渣

Sipping: Light passion fruit juice, oily texture, sweet pepper aroma, pepper, aftertaste with tropical fruit sweetness, spicy stimulation, smoky aroma, coffee becomes slightly cool with obvious oiliness and sweet aftertaste with ripe fruit acidity

FrontStreet Coffee · Brazil Minas Tijuco Preto Estate Pulped Natural Processing Flavor?

The Tijuco Preto estate, located at 1140 meters altitude in southern Minas, was the 7th place winning estate in the 2005 coffee competition. It grows traditional Bourbon coffee trees and uses manual harvesting of ripe coffee beans instead of mechanical harvesting to avoid uneven maturity. The pulped natural method involves drying coffee beans with parchment (membrane) in the drying field until moisture content drops below 11%. Compared to other Brazilian beans, the structure is relatively solid and the bean body is more substantial, giving a wider and more flexible roasting range that allows for more layered coffee flavors. The fruit aroma surpasses the cocoa chocolate aroma. Because it lacks the disadvantage of Brazilian beans being softer and not tolerating roasting well, the Tijuco Preto estate has no bitter, uncomfortable throat irritation, while maintaining a mellow sweet taste.

Since 1999, Brazil's specialty coffee competition has been held for 7 years. This grand event in the world coffee community is called: Brazil Cup of Excellence® Competition. This coffee competition started by Brazil has had a profound impact on the specialty coffee community. Central American countries have successively held national coffee competitions, and even South America and Ethiopia in Africa have followed this trend, joining coffee competitions and online public bidding models. It has brought opportunities for direct dialogue between producers and bean merchants. Through cupping evaluations and collaboration, they have made deeper contributions to specialty coffee, such as variety research, production improvement, and the impact of various processing methods on taste and quality.

In the 2005 Brazil National COE competition, many award-winning estates had delicate pulped natural processing models and even boldly launched varieties with smaller yields but superior quality.

Although Tijuco Preto estate has high altitude, the terrain of the coffee cultivation area is quite gentle, and the surrounding scenery is beautiful. The estate's territory also includes primitive forests, mountain springs, and waterfalls, showing great care for environmental and wildlife protection. Of the 346-hectare territory, only 70 hectares are used for coffee cultivation. To seek better flavors and try to meet customer demand for specialty Brazilian coffee, this estate grows very diverse varieties including: MUNDO NOVO, ACAI, CATUAi, ICATU, and YELLOW BOURBON (the famous Yellow Bourbon variety). Below are the lovely green bean outer bags of Fazenda Tijuco Preto and its famous pulped natural processed green beans:

Fazenda Tijuco Preto's harvesting and processing system is quite thoughtful. The model they developed is called PWP pulped natural process (PWP stands for: picked, washed, pulped). Because many Brazilian estates use mechanical harvesting, while the Central American specialty estates use hand-picking method one by one, which is less common in Brazil, and the harvested coffee is soaked and cleaned on the same day, then immediately peeled and pulped, and then placed on drying racks for natural sun drying. This trilogy is called the PWP processing method at TIJUCO PRETO estate.

The processed parchment beans are exposed on the terrace from the next day, turned an average of 20 times per day until the moisture content drops to 11%... Afterward, they are sent to storage for 60 days of resting.

When these parchment beans are ready for export, they undergo four [dry processing] steps: dehulling, bean selection, grading, and packaging. Examining this batch of green beans from Ou She, one can indeed find that they are typical pulped natural Brazilian specialty. This estate has quite brilliant award-winning records: representing COCARIVE (Cooperativa dos Cafeicultores de Carmo de Minas), that is, the coffee growers' cooperative of the Carmo de Minas region, winning the silver medal in the natural Arabica coffee category at the French IVPA competition. And 7th place in the 2005 Brazil National Competition! 7th Winning farm of 2005 Brazil Cup of Excellence® Competition

Brazil Pulped Natural Processing Method (Honey Processing Method)

The pulped natural method is an improved method of natural processing. The main difference from natural processing is that the outer skin and pulp are removed before sun drying, while retaining the mucilage layer for direct sun drying. The quite famous honey processing method in Costa Rica is also considered a pulped natural method.

Processing Steps

1. Remove floating beans (same as natural processing)
Pour coffee beans into a large water tank. Underdeveloped inferior beans will float to the surface, while mature, full fruits will sink to the bottom. At this time, remove the floating beans from the water surface to complete the floating bean removal step.

2. Remove skin and pulp (same as washed processing)
Through a pulping machine, remove the outer skin and pulp of coffee fruits. (This leaves mucilage, parchment, and silver skin).

3. Sun drying
Spread the mucilage-covered coffee beans directly on the drying field for sun exposure until moisture content drops to 10-14%.

4. Remove mucilage and parchment
Use special machines to remove mucilage and parchment to complete the processing steps.

Advantages

1. It's an improved method of natural processing. Because the pulp is removed at the beginning, there won't be mold problems.
2. Doesn't require large amounts of fresh water, with lower costs.

Disadvantages

The processing steps can be said to be the most complex and labor-intensive among all methods.

Flavor

Coffee beans processed by the honey processing method have better flavor, with balanced acidity and sweetness. Like natural processing, because of sun exposure, the aroma of the coffee beans themselves is also amplified, with rich mellow flavors.

Brazil Coffee Growing Varieties

Brazil grows numerous coffee varieties, both Arabica and Robusta. Smooth, low acidity, slightly sweet, and balanced are the main characteristics of Brazilian Arabica coffee. Although Brazilian coffee is generally considered not to have outstanding flavor characteristics, Brazilian coffee beans are the most suitable choice for blended coffee. If you want to create an elegant yet affordable blended coffee, Brazilian coffee is an excellent supporting choice. Using Brazilian coffee can balance other strongly flavored coffee varieties, such as the well-known Mamba coffee, Goba coffee, etc., all use Brazilian coffee as the best choice. At the same time, Brazilian coffee is also one of the most widely used in espresso blend recipes.

Brazil currently focuses on Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Mundo Novo, and Catuai as main varieties. Catuai, Acaiá, Obatã, Aramosa, Laurina, and others are also cultivated and researched. The Campinas Agricultural Research Institute in São Paulo is Brazil's famous coffee variety improvement arsenal, and the most widely planted Catimor globally is the masterpiece of Portuguese and Brazilian scientists.

Brazil Coffee Classification by Region

Strictly Soft: Southern Minas, Cerrado, Mogiana, Bahia Diamond Plateau.

Soft: Bahia, Minas southeastern mountain forests, Paraná, central-west São Paulo, Espírito Santo mountainous areas.

Softish: Eastern and northeastern Minas.

Hardish: Low altitude areas of Paraná, Espírito Santo.

Rioy: Flat areas of Espírito Santo, lower altitude areas of southeastern Minas.

Coffee Producing Regions

Brazil's main producing regions include Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Bahia, and Espírito Santo. These four places account for 90% of the country's total exports. The commonly seen Santos and Mogiana come from São Paulo. Cerrado and Sul de Minas in Minas Gerais, because of their higher altitude, mostly produce specialty Brazilian coffee beans. Cerrado is located in the western part of Minas Gerais, a flat plateau with an altitude of 750-1200m.

Sul de Minas is hilly land at 700m-1200m altitude, the earliest coffee production area in Brazil. Due to rising labor costs, most harvesting is now done mechanically. It is also the earliest commercialized area for coffee. We can see many large exporters established here. The Bahia producing region in northern Brazil mainly produces washed Brazilian coffee, while the coastal Espírito Santo producing region is the main export area for Brazilian Robusta varieties.

São Paulo State

Mogiana

This area is very close to southern Minas. Coffee is grown among bushes, grasslands, and other vegetation. In this area, there are many farming families, some of which operate traditional large farms, while others adopt small-scale modern operations. Modern technology mixed with mountain coffee cultivation culture creates the highest quality green coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee · Brazil Queen Estate

Region: Mogiana

Estate Name: Queen Estate (Fazenda Rainha)

Owner: Regina Helena Mello de Carvalho Dias, belonging to the Carvalho Dias family

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing: Natural processing

Altitude: 1400-1950m

Roasting Analysis

The green beans have solid texture and excellent flavor performance, with slight orange peel and spice notes. Green bean moisture content is 9.9%.

This batch of FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate coffee beans has relatively low moisture content, which gives the beans strong heat absorption ability. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's roasting plan is to start at 200°C, then use high heat and small airflow to speed up dehydration. After the dehydration stage ends, open medium airflow and medium heat for the Maillard reaction, without rushing the time. Remove from roaster near the end of first crack.

FrontStreet Coffee tested roasting 4 times before and after, finally choosing 1 minute 45 seconds to 2 minutes after the end of first crack as optimal. The flavor has obvious sweetness, but not boring sweetness, with light lemon aroma in the background, which is more prominent in the wet aroma stage. The later stage shows obvious dark chocolate flavor, with an overall rounded feeling, while reflecting the overall characteristics of Brazilian coffee, without losing liveliness.

Brewing Parameters

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 86-88°C

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Medium grind

Brewing Method

First pour uses 30g of water for blooming, blooming time about 30 seconds. Second pour to 125g water in segments. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue third pour to 225g to finish. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from blooming). Extraction time is 2'00".

Flavor Description

Sweet beans, clean, using pulped natural will make its acidity slightly bright but balanced with sweetness. Some even have tropical fruit aroma, especially the overflowing aroma during brewing, which is more appealing. Fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, mellow fruit sweetness, obvious nutty flavor, balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, containing rich chocolate aroma and nutty flavor, bright and clean taste, smooth and delicate texture.

Central West / Garea, Marilia and Piraju

Coffee bean cultivation in this region generally combines large estates with traditional production lines. Although production seems to be decreasing, there is greater pursuit of producing higher quality green beans.

Paraná State / Norte Pionerio do Parane

This state was Brazil's largest production area in the past and currently has its unique production technology. After discovering that the unit yield of coffee forests was declining, Paraná producers created a new type of "closed planting system." Currently, large numbers of coffee trees per hectare can better resist cold winds while ensuring more regular output.

Bahia State / Bahia

Bahia / Atlantico Baiano: Mainly produces Robusta beans in large farms.

Chapada / Planalto da Bahia: This area is located in central Bahia, mainly producing hand-selected Arabica coffee. Mainly uses washed processing method.

Bahia Cerrado / Cerrado da Bahia: This area is located in western Bahia, generally considered the newest Brazilian coffee growing area. Modern technology for irrigation and harvesting is widely used in this region.

Espírito Santo State / Espirito Santo

This state is mainly divided into two regions. The north, both large and small estates, grow Robusta beans; the south produces typical mountain-grown coffee, generally in smaller quantities. Both washed and natural processing are used in this region.

Minas Gerais / MinasGerais

Sul de Minas / Sul deMinas

Small estate area, producing about 8-10 million bags of mountain-grown coffee beans. Suitable altitude, undulating terrain, and climate conducive to coffee cultivation, with concentrated rainfall in the months when fruits need to grow, and dry climate in the months when harvesting is needed.

FrontStreet Coffee · Brazil Red Bourbon

Region: Sul de Minas region

Variety: Red Bourbon

Processing: Pulped natural processing

Altitude: 1000m

Brewing Parameters

Dripper: KONO

Water Temperature: 88-90°C

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Medium grind

For darker roasted coffee beans to highlight the mellow feeling, FrontStreet Coffee will choose the KONO dripper for brewing. The characteristic of the KONO dripper is its immersion function, which can use immersion to extract more coffee substances and enhance the mellow texture. Because its ribs are few and located at the bottom, it can make the filter paper stick closely to the dripper to achieve the effect of restricting airflow, thereby slowing water flow and increasing water-coffee contact time, suitable for brewing FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Estate, FrontStreet Coffee Golden Mandheling, and other medium-dark roasted coffee beans.

Brewing Method

First pour uses 30g of water for blooming, blooming time about 30 seconds. Second pour to 125g water in segments. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue third pour to 225g to finish. When water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from blooming). Extraction time is 2 minutes.

Flavor Description

Overall has nuts, chocolate, cream, peanuts, caramel, fruit acidity, sucrose flavors.

Cerrado / CerradoMineiro

Growing coffee in Cerrado (also called Savannah) is a triumph of Brazilian coffee technology. More and more large coffee plantations in Cerrado use high technology for production, with very few regions having this situation. Highland climate with four distinct seasons, very stable fruit maturation, with no rain during the harvest season. Savannah coffee generally uses natural processing method, which is also a current processing trend.

Chapada de Minas /Chapada de Minas

In the northern part of Minas Gerais state, very small area, but green bean quality is world-class.

Matas de Minas /Matas de Minas

A very large area with very diverse ecosystems, also Brazil's oldest coffee growing area. Its highest altitude areas are the best regions for coffee processing.

Rondônia State Rondônia

Located in the western Amazon forest region of Brazil, bordering Bolivia, this area mainly produces Robusta variety coffee.

Rio de Janeiro State Rio deJaneiro

Mainly grows Arabica varieties. Compared to other producing regions, it has excellent port transportation advantages.

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