What Does the Brazil Coffee Region Taste Like? Flavor Characteristics of Brazilian Bourbon Coffee Varieties

Brazil is the world's largest coffee exporting country, with approximately one-third of all coffee beans globally originating from Brazil. However, most people seem to only be familiar with the Queen's Estate single-origin coffee beans from Brazil. So what exactly are the flavor profiles of Brazilian coffee beans? And what coffee varieties does Brazil have? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will provide you with an educational overview.

First, everyone knows that coffee beans are an agricultural product, and their flavor characteristics are closely related to the growing region, variety, and processing method. The reason why single-origin coffee beans from Brazil are less commonly heard of is not because the coffee beans from this region have poor flavor, but rather because their flavor profiles are generally quite similar. Naturally, FrontStreet Coffee only introduces the best coffee bean from each flavor profile category to avoid overly similar flavors.

Brazilian Coffee History

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, coffee was introduced to Brazil in the 18th century. In 1727, coffee was brought to Brazil's Port of Belém from Guiana, where it took root and became established, primarily distributed across Brazil's southeastern coastal regions, namely the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Espírito Santo, and Minas Gerais.

From the late 18th century to the 1920s, during Portuguese colonization, Brazil engaged in monoculture cultivation to meet Western European demand, which meant coffee cultivation. Consequently, coffee became Brazil's pillar industry for a very long period. This was also the golden age of Brazilian coffee production, when Brazil's coffee output once accounted for 75% of the world's total production. For a considerable time, coffee exports accounted for two-thirds of Brazil's total export income, making Brazil the undisputed "Coffee Kingdom." However, in 1929, affected by the economic crisis, global coffee consumption plummeted, which severely impacted Brazil's coffee economy.

Since then, the proportion of coffee production in Brazil's export income has declined sharply. In the past 30 years, with the development of Brazil's modern industries, particularly the rise and growth of industries such as steel, shipbuilding, automotive, and aircraft manufacturing, coffee's position in the national economy has decreased year by year. Nevertheless, it remains one of Brazil's economic pillars, and Brazil continues to be the world's largest coffee producer and exporter.

Brazilian Coffee Varieties

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Brazil currently primarily features Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Mundo Novo, and Catuai as its main coffee varieties. Catuai and Laurina coffee varieties are also cultivated and researched. The Campinas Agronomic Institute in São Paulo is a renowned Brazilian coffee variety improvement research institute. Additionally, the most widely grown Catimor variety globally was developed by Portuguese and Brazilian scientists. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share the characteristics of each of these varieties.

Red Bourbon

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Bourbon is a subspecies that mutated from Typica, belonging to the oldest existing coffee varieties alongside Typica. When the green fruits ripen, they present a bright red color. Compared to Typica, Bourbon plants have broader leaves and grow more densely. Although the yield is higher than Typica, the harvesting period is still two years, making it a low-yield variety. However, it offers excellent flavor with wine-like acidity and sweet aftertaste.

To put it simply, Bourbon is a coffee tree variety belonging to the Arabica species, typically producing red fruits called Red Bourbon. In addition, there are Yellow Bourbon and Pink Bourbon. Red Bourbon refers to the general Bourbon coffee trees where, after flowering and fruiting, the color changes of coffee cherries follow this pattern: green > light yellow > light orange > mature red > darker red when fully ripe. Hence, it's called Red Bourbon. Its flavor features excellent aroma with bright acidity, and when tasted, it even has wine-like characteristics. Furthermore, according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Red Bourbon is currently the most widely cultivated variety in Brazil's coffee-producing regions.

For example, the Brazilian daily-drinker coffee beans currently available at FrontStreet Coffee use the Red Bourbon variety to represent the flavor profile of Brazil's coffee region. Because Red Bourbon is not only the most productive variety in Brazil but also the most original variety.

FrontStreet Coffee: Brazil · Red Bourbon Coffee Beans
Country: Brazil
Region: South Minas
Altitude: 1000m
Variety: Red Bourbon
Processing Method: Pulped Natural
Flavor: Nuts, Chocolate, Cream, Peanut, Caramel

Yellow Bourbon

As mentioned above, Yellow Bourbon is also a genetic mutation of Bourbon. Bourbon has long been considered an outstanding coffee variety due to its high yield and excellent quality. Yellow Bourbon is a unique Bourbon variety found exclusively in São Paulo state, Brazil. When the coffee cherries ripen, they don't turn red like Red Bourbon but instead become orange-yellow, hence the name Yellow Bourbon. Because Yellow Bourbon is grown at very high altitudes, its flavor is exceptional.

Furthermore, according to FrontStreet Coffee's cupping results, Yellow Bourbon coffee beans grown in high-altitude regions exhibit excellent flavor performance. For two consecutive years, the top three awards in the Brazil Cup of Excellence competition were almost entirely swept by Yellow Bourbon coffee beans, making it popular in the specialty coffee industry. Yellow Bourbon typically features nuts and chocolate flavors, with balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, creating an overall bright and refreshing profile.

Among these, the Brazilian Queen's Estate coffee beans introduced at FrontStreet Coffee are precisely of the Yellow Bourbon variety.

FrontStreet Coffee: Brazil Queen's Estate Coffee Beans
Country: Brazil
Region: São Paulo State (Queen's Estate)
Altitude: 1400-1950m
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing Method: Pulped Natural/Natural
Flavor: Nuts, Cream, Peanut, Fermented Fruits, Cane Sugar

Pink Bourbon

Pink Bourbon, as the name suggests, refers to Bourbon tree coffee cherries that ripen to a romantic pink color, belonging to rare coffee varieties. However, according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Pink Bourbon did not first appear in Brazil, its place of origin, but was first discovered in the town of Palestine, Huila province, Colombia, and is therefore currently primarily cultivated in Colombia's Huila region.

Furthermore, according to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Pink Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon and Red Bourbon belong to dominant traits expressed by dominant genes, with relatively strong reproductive stability. The new variety Pink Bourbon, resulting from their hybridization, belongs to recessive traits expressed by recessive genes, and offspring produced by hybrid reproduction are prone to trait segregation.

However, there's another theory about Pink Bourbon's genetics. Some studies have found that Pink Bourbon is a natural hybrid of Bourbon and Catuai. Catuai is a Bourbon variety, while the Colombia variety, as a coffee tree species heavily promoted for cultivation in Colombia, has obvious advantages due to carrying some Robusta genes - high yield and resistance to leaf rust disease. The drawback is mediocre flavor performance and lack of delicate acidity and sweetness.

The reason FrontStreet Coffee says Pink Bourbon is a rare variety is mainly because maintaining this beautiful pink color is very difficult. Because through artificial hybridization, sometimes orange Bourbon fruits are harvested. This is because the color of coffee cherries is ultimately determined by recessive genes in pollen grains. These pollen grains contain both yellow genes leaning toward Yellow Bourbon and red genes leaning toward Red Bourbon, but all of these are recessive genes that easily interfere with each other. Therefore, Pink Bourbon production is extremely scarce, and the price is relatively expensive.

FrontStreet Coffee once acquired a Pink Bourbon variety coffee bean from Huila, Colombia, and would like to share it with coffee enthusiasts. This coffee bean has distinctive cherry tomato flavor, easily reminiscent of berry acidity, with vanilla and dark chocolate notes, and overall cane sugar sweetness with distinct flavor layers.

FrontStreet Coffee: Colombia Isabella Coffee Beans
Country: Colombia
Region: Huila
Altitude: 1760m
Variety: Pink Bourbon
Processing Method: Semi-washed
Flavor: Cherry Tomato, Citrus, Floral Notes, Honey, Fruits

Catuai

Catuai is a single-gene variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Both its yield capacity and disease resistance are superior to Bourbon, and the plant is shorter, making harvesting convenient. Unfortunately, like Bourbon, it also has the problem of biennial production cycles. However, its flavor is comparable to or slightly inferior to Bourbon beans. More importantly, it has extremely strong adaptability, not requiring shade trees and thriving under direct sunlight exposure, commonly known as sun coffee. It can adapt to high-density planting but requires more fertilization, increasing costs, so initially, coffee farmers' acceptance was not high.

This variety is currently primarily cultivated in Latin America. For example, most of the Costa Rican coffee beans at FrontStreet Coffee use the Catuai variety.

Catuai

Catuai is an Arabica hybrid variety, a cross between Mundo Novo (a subspecies of the Robusta variety) and Catuai. It has better resistance to natural disasters, particularly strong resistance to wind and rain. It inherits Catuai's advantage of low plant height, addressing Mundo Novo's shortcomings. Another advantage is that the fruits are firmly attached and don't easily fall off in strong winds, compensating for the fragile nature of Arabica cherries. However, its overall flavor performance is more monotonous than Catuai and also lacks the richness of Mundo Novo, which is its greatest drawback. Additionally, its fruit production and harvesting lifespan is only about ten years, making its short lifespan another weakness.

Mundo Novo

Mundo Novo is a natural hybrid of Bourbon and Sumatra varieties discovered in Brazil, and it began to be cultivated in Brazil around 1950. It has strong environmental adaptability and resistance to pests and diseases. Although it's a high-yield variety, its growth rate is slow, and the beans are relatively large. Its weakness is that the tree height exceeds 3 meters (this height is beyond the reach of harvesting machines, making it unsuitable for mechanized harvesting), requiring annual pruning of the coffee tree's top branches and leaves. Mundo Novo has good balance between acidity and bitterness.

Laurina

Laurina can be considered one of the world's rarest coffees. It was discovered in 1810 by a Réunion Island (formerly Bourbon Island) coffee farmer named Leroy. There are reasons for its preciousness. Besides its unique appearance, natural low caffeine content makes Laurina a unique variety. Common Arabica beans, such as Typica or Bourbon, have a caffeine content of about 1.2%, while Robusta beans have even higher caffeine content at about 2.8% (often used for instant coffee due to poor flavor). Laurina has only 0.6% caffeine content. Not only is the caffeine content low, but its rich fruit flavors and mellow aroma remain undiminished.

The above is FrontStreet Coffee's compilation of explanations about Brazilian coffee bean varieties. We hope this helps coffee enthusiasts better understand Brazilian coffee, enabling them to select Brazilian variety coffee beans that suit their taste preferences in the future.

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