Recommendation for Low-Acidity Pour-Over Coffee Beans — Flavor Profile of Brazil Queen Estate Pulped Natural Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans

Owned by the renowned and respected coffee family Carvalho Dias family, the four major estates under Carvalho Dias have won awards every year since the first Brazil Cup of Excellence (COE) competition in 1999, winning more than 12 times in 7 years. In 2004, they even swept the championship, 9th place, and 11th place. Many large and small estates in Brazil feel honored to participate in this competition, but Queen's Estate has won this award for many years, which indicates that Queen's Estate has exceptionally high quality compared to typical Brazilian coffee beans.

Among the two Brazilian coffee beans offered by FrontStreet Coffee, one is the FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen's Estate Yellow Bourbon coffee beans. Compared to coffee beans from other Brazilian producing regions, those from Queen's Estate have a unique sweet freshness. Beyond the rich nutty and cocoa notes characteristic of Brazilian coffee beans, the aftertaste presents a brown sugar-like sweetness that is truly impressive.

This unique performance stems from two factors. First, Queen's Estate adopts an estate management system. Compared to centralized processing after collection from different small coffee farmers, Queen's Estate grows and processes its own coffee, resulting in more stable quality. Second, Queen's Estate primarily cultivates the Yellow Bourbon coffee variety, which is characterized by balanced and smooth acidity, weak and clean bitterness, and an overall bright and refreshing profile.

Queen's Estate (Fazenda Rainha) is located in the Mogiana region at an altitude of 1400-1950m. The unique geographical conditions and pleasant climate make this an exceptional origin for specialty coffee. It is managed by José Renato G. Dias, an agricultural engineer specializing in coffee production.

At Queen's Estate, all workers live on the farm itself, eliminating temporary employment and receiving appropriate support through health plans and unlimited hospital care. Recently, the workers built the second unit of the Pedro Roza IT school and a small chapel designed by Oscar Niemayer. Fazenda Rainha's environmental policy is based on coordinating production and environmental protection. This is a BSCA-certified property with a UTZ-certified social and environmental management system that has been a finalist in the Cup of Excellence competition for many years.

Yellow Bourbon Coffee Variety

The estate cultivates Yellow Bourbon, Icatu, Yellow Catuai, Mundo Novo, and Acaiá varieties. The coffee beans produced here all have BSCA and Utz certifications. However, the main cultivated variety is Yellow Bourbon. According to the estate, 200 hectares of the farm are dedicated to planting the Yellow Bourbon variety.

Yellow Bourbon is a Bourbon variety unique to São Paulo state, Brazil. It is named "Yellow Bourbon" mainly because the fruit does not turn red when ripe, but instead presents an orange-yellow color. Yellow Bourbon beans are inherently sweet and clean. Using the natural (or semi-natural) processing method will reduce its acidity slightly, but it combines well with sweetness, presenting tropical fruit aromas.

Pulped Natural Processing Characteristics

Pulped Natural processing is a coffee processing method original to Brazil. To reduce mold growth in natural processed coffee beans caused by Brazil's rainy climate, the Pulped Natural method was invented to shorten processing time.

Pulped Natural processing removes the skin and pulp of coffee cherries, allowing control over the fermentation degree of the mucilage-coated coffee beans. Traditional natural processing involves sun-drying with skin and pulp intact, making it impossible to monitor the fermentation of the mucilage. Pulped Natural processing is a method between natural and washed processing, but without the "fermentation tank washing, clean water rinsing" process of washed processing, instead proceeding directly to sun-drying.

Although the methods may seem similar, the absence of the fermentation step results in completely different coffee bean flavors. In the process of removing coffee cherry skin and pulp during pulped natural processing, ripe pulp is easily removed, while the skin of unripe green fruit is difficult to process, allowing for a second screening to filter out unripe fruits and standardize the maturity of the coffee cherries. Compared to natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee believes that this selective processing improves the cleanliness and maturity of coffee beans, resulting in more consistent tasting coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen's Estate Green Bean Analysis

FrontStreet Coffee notes that Queen's Estate coffee beans have relatively low density, moderate moisture content, and somewhat soft bean texture with a thin thickness from the surface to the core. Therefore, they are not suitable for baking at too high temperatures, as this would create burnt bitterness. We use a medium-heat bean entry method, maintaining heat during the dehydration stage, and make fine adjustments as temperature rises after the first crack begins to promote more complete caramelization. This semi-washed coffee warms slowly after the first crack, allowing us to finish roasting just before the second crack to achieve a medium-dark roast degree.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen's Estate Coffee Roasting Insights

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Yellow Bourbon roasting recommendations: Yangjia 800N, bean quantity 550g: preheat to 200°C, adjust heat to 150, damper opening to 3, return temperature at 1'30", maintain heat, yellowing at 5'10", grassy aroma disappears, entering dehydration stage, reduce heat to 125, damper to 3.5. Dehydration complete at 8'20", wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma transforms to coffee aroma, prelude to first crack, reduce heat to 80 at 178°C, now pay attention to the sound of first crack, first crack begins at 9'14", fully open damper to 5. Post-first crack development time 3'00", unload at 201°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen's Estate Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Medium-dark roasted coffee beans have a loose structure, making the substances within the beans more easily extracted. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using lower temperature hot water and medium-coarse grind when brewing FrontStreet Coffee Brazil coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee store brewing parameters: Using Kono dripper, water temperature: 88°C, coffee amount: 15g, coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, grind size: medium-fine grind (70-75% pass-through rate with China standard #20 sieve)

Extraction method is as follows: First, inject 30g of water for blooming, with a blooming time of 30 seconds. Second, inject water to about 125g, then wait for the coffee liquid to drop. When it drops to halfway, inject the final water to reach 225g. Wait until all the coffee has filtered through before ending extraction. The total extraction time is generally around 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

Important Notice :

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