What Brand of Coffee Beans is Good - Brazil Pedralva Furnas Farm Ice Honey Processed Coffee

Brazil Ice Beauty Anaerobic Honey Processing Introduction

Brazil has held the top position as the world's largest coffee producer for over 150 years. Today it cultivates roughly one-third of the world's coffee trees, and at one point its share of the global coffee market reached 80%. To keep production at peak levels, the industry adopted specific, innovative approaches that made harvesting and processing as efficient and organized as possible. Farms were laid out around those systems to maximize yield per hectare. Because of this emphasis on volume, Brazil's reputation for producing high-quality coffee is not especially strong.

Most farms employ fairly rough harvesting methods, such as stripping, in which whole branches are pulled clean of their cherries in one pass. Alternatively, since local plantations tend to be large and the terrain flat, producers often harvest mechanically. Neither method accounts for the ripeness of the fruit, so a large share of unripe cherries ends up in the harvest.

One point worth mentioning when discussing Brazilian coffee is the pulped natural method, which has a clear connection to the honey processing so popular today. Because water is scarce in much of Brazil and the humid climate makes drying inefficient, traditional natural and washed methods proved impractical. Resourceful producers therefore created a method that removes the cherry skin and dries the beans on beds or concrete to speed up drying. The technique was later introduced to Costa Rica, where it was continually refined into honey processing. In this sense, Brazil is the originator of coffee honey processing.

FrontStreet Coffee has introduced a Brazilian specialty coffee made with an innovative anaerobic ice honey process, an upgrade on the anaerobic methods that have become popular in recent years. The method also earned this bean a considerable score.

Brazil Ice Beauty

Origin: Brazil

Region: Furnas Farm, Pedralva

Variety: Yellow Catuai

Altitude: 950-1350m

Processing: Anaerobic Ice Honey (partial removal of cherry skin followed by anaerobic fermentation in ice barrels, isolated from air)

Roast Level: Medium Roast

Coffee Review: 87 points

Brewing Recommendations: 88°C water, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, complete extraction in 1:50

Overall Flavor: Sugarcane, Grapefruit, Melon (high sweetness, persistent finish)

Aroma: Sugarcane, chocolate, lime marmalade, nuts after grinding

Wet Aroma: Honey, preserves, dark chocolate

Flavor: Orange, sucrose, cocoa, roasted nuts, brown sugar at medium temperature, dried longan, roasted malt

Aftertaste: Nuts, cocoa, dried longan, roasted malt

Knowledge Extension

Because of Brazil's pivotal position in the global coffee market, any factor affecting Brazilian production has a corresponding effect on world coffee prices.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado (Half-Sun) Single Origin. For a first taste of the Brazilian profile, FrontStreet Coffee suggests a classic half-sun Cerrado bean. Cerrado is one of Brazil's best-known growing regions, prized for high-quality coffee, and the FrontStreet lot is a Red Bourbon, the common red-fruited Bourbon of South America.

Roasted medium, it opens with the rich aromas of cream and peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut. The cup is rounded and smooth rather than acidic, with a light, gentle bitterness. It is versatile enough for pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, and French press.

For pour-over, use 88°C water and a 1:15 ratio, aiming to complete extraction in about 1 minute 50 seconds.