Brazil COE Champion Fazenda Santa Luzia Yellow Bourbon Natural 92 Points Tropical Fruit Flavor

FrontStreet Coffee - Brazil Nossa Senhora da Luz Estate Yellow Bourbon Natural Introduction

Estate Overview and Honors

Nossa Senhora da Luz Estate is located in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil, which produces the country's finest specialty coffee. In 2013, the coffee grown by Nossa Senhora da Luz Estate scored 92.22, the highest score in the late-harvest season, and took the championship of Brazil's Cup of Excellence (COE).

The owners of Nossa Senhora da Luz Estate are the couple Regina Lucia and Edmo Villela. Their sons Cinthia, Tatina, Claudia and Rnoney Dias Villela now run the estate, and the fourth generation has begun to enter the coffee business.

Bourbon is a branch of Arabica and includes Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Pink Bourbon and Orange Bourbon, as well as the extremely low-yielding Laurina, which is rare on the market. Yellow Bourbon turns yellow when the fruit ripens, whereas coffee fruit is normally red at maturity. It has high sweetness and suits both light and dark roasting, and in recent years Yellow Bourbon has frequently placed in the top three at the COE, which is remarkable.

The estate's coffee cups at a high score of 87, with flavors of tropical fruit, passion fruit, jackfruit, cantaloupe, cherry and red berries, a medium-to-high body, and a finish of guava and red wine.

This Brazilian Nossa Senhora da Luz is very well suited to drinkers who enjoy a full body and plenty of sweetness. Although Brazil produces coffee in enormous volume, high-quality Brazilian beans that are both characteristically Brazilian and clean are rare.

Brazil Nossa Senhora da Luz Estate Yellow Bourbon Natural

Region: Minas Gerais

Altitude: 1300m

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing: Natural

Flavor: Tropical fruits, jackfruit, red berries

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you only want a first taste of the Brazilian profile, FrontStreet's Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic single-origin bean. Cerrado is a well-known Brazilian region famed for high-quality coffee, and this Red Bourbon is roasted to a medium level, giving rich creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel and hazelnut aromas with a rounded body, low acidity and a light bittersweet note. It suits pour-over, the moka pot, espresso SOE, the siphon and the French press alike.

For a rarer variety, try FrontStreet's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon from Mogiana, near South Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil feeds the cherries into a full, sweet aroma. Yellow Bourbon is a natural mutation of Red Bourbon with a cleaner fruit character, and it delivers a sugarcane sweetness together with fruit and chocolate notes.

Brazil is also the first choice for many espresso blends, thanks to its low acidity, balanced body and affordable price. FrontStreet's espresso blends draw their chocolate and cream aromas and their soft, balanced sweet-sour-bitter profile from Brazilian beans, and that balance is what makes extraction repeatable day after day.