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How are Brazilian Coffee Beans Graded in Quality and Flavor? What's the Best Pour-Over Brazilian Coffee?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, The history of coffee drinking in China spans less than 40 years, during which the country has experienced the Nestlé instant coffee era, the UCC and Starbucks chain coffee era, and is now entering the "Third Wave" specialty coffee era. In this remarkably short period, reform and opening-up China has learned what coffee is and...

The Evolution of Coffee Culture in China

The true coffee-drinking era in China has been less than 40 years. In this brief period, we've experienced the Nestlé and Maxwell House instant coffee era, the UCC Island and Starbucks chain coffee era, and now we're entering the "Third Wave" specialty coffee era.

In such a short time, reform and opening-up China has learned what coffee is, what freshly ground coffee is, and what good freshly ground coffee is. Throughout this time, we've been taught how to drink coffee. The enduring slogan "Nestlé, it tastes excellent" attracted Chinese people to try the Western "tea ceremony," while also declaring that drinking coffee is trendy and fashionable, attracting the young main force of that era.

Subsequently, during the era of chain stores like UCC Island and Starbucks that focused on freshly ground coffee, we further experienced the true coffee flavor that differs from instant black coffee and 2+1 instant coffee. Until now, in the age of information explosion, consumers sitting at their computers can easily grasp production information from the coffee's upstream sources. The requirements for coffee have also evolved to demand good coffee beans, good roasting, and good brewing methods.

What Makes Good Coffee Beans?

Regarding what constitutes good coffee beans, different people have different views, generally divided into price, flavor, and cupping scores. General consumers have a potential awareness that the higher the price, the better the quality, and the lower the price, the poorer the quality. This reminded FrontStreet Coffee of an interesting story.

"FrontStreet Coffee in its 8 years of operation has naturally made friends who share similar interests not necessarily because of coffee. Joking among old friends is essential, and FrontStreet Coffee has always been happy to share coffee. For this, we prepared the same coffee beans, rather ordinary, about 30 yuan per 100g. First, we shared it and introduced it as XX coffee, priced around 30 yuan. Everyone commented 'not bad,' 'quite good to drink,' 'this flavor is worth the price.' After an hour of pleasant conversation, we shared the second round, using the same coffee beans, but this time introducing it as YY coffee, priced around 100 yuan. The comments we received this time were 'this acidity feels quite comfortable,' 'the acidity is very bright,' 'the aftertaste is strong,' 'full of berry flavor.'"

The Influence of Price on Perception

Of course, this was just an amusing anecdote among old friends and doesn't represent anything significant. FrontStreet Coffee hasn't conducted comprehensive data surveys, but based on this random incident, the reality is that price does influence judgment. As for flavor and cupping scores, a group of professionals has already established standards for everyone. Take the widely applicable SCA standards, for example. In its standards, for 350g of green beans, no deductions are allowed for Category 1 defects, and deductions for Category 2 defects must be within 5 points. They are scored using SCA's cupping method, with beans scoring 80 or above classified as specialty beans, and those below 80 classified as commercial beans.

Even if it's 79.75 points, sorry, it didn't reach 80 points, so it's commercial bean. So how far apart are the flavors of 79.75-point and 80-point coffee beans? If you've taken SCA green bean courses, you should have heard the teacher say that commercial beans don't represent bad beans; they just perform rather ordinarily. But the reality is that commercial beans are priced much lower than specialty beans, which brings us back to the issue of price discrimination.

Redefining Quality Beyond Price

FrontStreet Coffee believes that the logic "the higher the price, the better the coffee bean quality" is not wrong. However, one must correctly understand coffee pricing - it's not that lower prices mean poorer quality, but rather that the more one pursues high-quality coffee beans, the higher the price. Just as people don't think Brazilian coffee is particularly good to drink, and of course, the price isn't high either. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian daily beans as an example, they sell for 25 yuan per 100g, but the coffee beans used are already of Brazil's highest standard: grade NY.2, 18 mesh size, with Good Cup cupping quality. In the roasted beans that consumers encounter, they have also undergone screening during roasting. In terms of flavor, it's just ordinary coffee - balanced, plain, and simple. Although it's inexpensive, it's still good coffee.

The True Value of Coffee

The expression of good coffee doesn't lie in its high price, just as the follow-up to "you get what you pay for" is "paying more gets you better value." Just as enjoying a cup of ordinary Brazilian coffee on a certain morning is more comfortable than drinking Emerald Red Label.