What are the Best Coffee Brands in Brazil? Flavor Characteristics of Brazilian Bourbon Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Santa Izabel Estate Yellow Bourbon Pulped Natural Introduction

Brazil doesn't have pink bourbon, only yellow bourbon. Today we're introducing a yellow bourbon from Minas Gerais state.

Santa Izabel is an award-winning estate in the southern part of Minas Gerais, near the mountainous area around Ouro Fino city. Although the highest elevation reaches only 1,200 meters, the estate has a unique microclimate — ideal average annual temperatures and day-night temperature differences — allowing the coffee it produces to reach excellent quality with outstanding performance. Minas Gerais is one of the main specialty coffee production areas, and this batch of FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Yellow Bourbon is a particularly rare Peaberry grade lot. Only about 20% of coffee trees produce peaberries, with delicate flavors and full sweetness that are truly impressive.

The estate was acquired by the FAL Group in 2012, which also owns another high-quality farm, Monte Verde. After the acquisition, more effort went into the estate's processing equipment and cultivation, dedicated to producing higher-quality coffee, including experimenting with new varieties. Their names appear year after year on the Cup of Excellence lists, and they have performed strongly in other local quality contests.

Most large Brazilian farms use mechanical harvesting to meet efficiency and volume targets. This estate is different — with meticulous processing procedures, they insist on harvesting ripe cherries by hand. After picking, the cherries are carefully sorted to remove debris, then sent to the processing plant. They are washed clean, unqualified beans are screened out, and qualified ones go into the pulper for pulp removal. Some mucilage remains outside the parchment layer afterward. The beans are then moved to drying beds, and the entire drying area also has large covered patio equipment. If not handled properly, these parchment beans might pop like popcorn.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Santa Izabel Estate Yellow Bourbon Pulped Natural

Region: Minas Gerais

Altitude: 924-1200m

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Processing Method: Pulped Natural

Flavor Notes: Honey, Hazelnut, Chocolate

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Two Brazilian lots from FrontStreet Coffee show this country's sweeter side. FrontStreet Brazil Queen Farm Yellow Bourbon is the closest match to the Santa Izabel profile: a rare Yellow Bourbon grown on the fertile red volcanic soil of Mogiana, with a clean fruit sweetness, a sugarcane-like lift, and fruit and chocolate notes — good as a hand-pour, in a moka pot or through a home espresso machine. For a more classic cup, FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is medium-roasted for cream, peanut, toast, caramel and hazelnut, rounded and low in acidity, and just as useful as a single-origin or a blend base.