Brazilian Coffee Beans | Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon from São Paulo's Mogiana Region

Brazilian coffee holds a major place in the global market: Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer and exporter, accounting for one-third of the world's coffee exports. Many people assume Brazil focuses on volume and that quality is merely average, but the country is also home to plenty of high-quality specialty coffee.

Growing Coffee in Brazil

Brazil is the largest country in South America, bordering ten nations that include Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. The reason it became the largest coffee producer lies in its favorable geography and climate. Brazil has a mainly tropical climate, with a tropical rainforest climate in the north, a tropical savanna climate in the center, and a humid subtropical monsoon climate in the south. Three main soil types are distributed across the country: sedimentary volcanic debris soil, red-yellow soil, and brown clay. These soils are rich in organic matter and minerals, drain well, and combine with numerous rivers and a suitable climate to make the land exceptionally good for coffee.

The Alta Mogiana Region

Brazil has 26 states, 17 of which produce coffee. Four states, Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, account for 90 percent of total production. Arabica makes up 80 percent of Brazil's output, with the remaining 20 percent Robusta. The main varieties grown are Bourbon, Catuaí, Typica and Mundo Novo, with the harvest running from May to September.

Several well-known sub-regions stand out within these states. One example is the Cerrado region of Minas Gerais, where FrontStreet Coffee offers a pulped natural Cerrado coffee as an entry-level selection, with chocolate flavor and a nutty aroma on a balanced cup. The Mogiana region is another renowned area, this time in São Paulo state, belonging to one of the higher-altitude zones and producing many specialty beans. Many farming families live here, and the combination of modern technology with traditional mountain coffee-growing culture yields high-quality green coffee.

Queen Farm

Queen Farm, or Fazenda Rainha, lies in the Mogiana region of São Paulo state, in the northern part of the state, within Brazil's ancient volcanic valley of Vale da Grama. The farm is highly regarded in Brazil and is owned by the Carvalho Dias family, which owns four major farms. Since the first Brazil Cup of Excellence competition in 1999, the family has won awards every year for 7 consecutive years, collecting more than 12 awards.

The family is also a founding member of the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association and places great emphasis on coffee quality and environmental protection. Its farms feature numerous environmental facilities and are committed to preserving original forest and reforesting. Because Queen Farm sits at a higher altitude on non-plain terrain, mechanical harvesting is impossible, so all coffee cherries are picked by hand. The farm grows lower-yielding but high-quality Yellow Bourbon.

Yellow Bourbon

Bourbon and Typica are among the oldest coffee varieties still in existence. Bourbon trees have distinctive features: the nodes of Bourbon leaves sit closer together, and Bourbon cherries are rounder and shorter than Typica's. The color of mature cherries varies by variety, appearing yellow or orange-pink. Bourbon beans are almost all round, smaller than Typica beans, and ripen later, but yield more than Typica. Grown at high altitude, Bourbon is denser and sweeter, with bright acidity and better resistance to leaf rust than Typica.

Common Bourbon cherries gradually change color from green to light yellow to red and finally to dark red at full maturity. These color-changing cherries are what we commonly call Red Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon is a unique Bourbon variant found only in São Paulo state, Brazil. Its main trait is that the cherries do not turn red when ripe but instead take on an orange-yellow color, hence the name Yellow Bourbon. Yet its yield is extremely low and it does not withstand wind and rain, which makes widespread cultivation difficult. Grown at high altitude, Yellow Bourbon contains high amounts of fructose and so presents a sweet, juicy coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen Farm Yellow Bourbon Coffee Beans
Region: Mogiana region
Farm/Mill: Queen Farm
Altitude: 1400-1950 meters
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing: Pulped Natural
Flavor: Sugarcane, Black Tea, Nuts, Chocolate

This Yellow Bourbon from Queen Farm, offered by FrontStreet Coffee, comes from the Mogiana region of São Paulo state. FrontStreet Coffee brews it with a KONO dripper at a 1:15 ratio and 90°C. The first sip reveals fruity sweetness, with flavors of sugarcane, black tea, chocolate and nuts, accompanied by a subtle, clean bitterness and a smooth, delicate texture.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you want to taste where Brazilian coffee begins, FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon is a classic starting point. Cerrado is a well-known producing region prized for high-quality beans, and this one, a Red Bourbon grown in the pulped natural style, opens with rich aromas of creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel and hazelnut. The cup is round and smooth, low in acidity with a gentle bitterness, and it works not only as a pour-over but also in a Moka pot, as an espresso SOE, in a siphon or in a French press.

For a clearer view of what makes Brazilian coffee so easy to drink, FrontStreet Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon is the higher-altitude, rarer option. Its Yellow Bourbon mutation produces a cleaner fruit character, and however you brew it, by pour-over, Moka pot or home espresso machine, it shows a sugarcane sweetness no other origin quite matches, along with fruit and chocolate notes.

Brazilian beans also anchor many of FrontStreet's espresso blends. FrontStreet Classic Blend, with its generous crema; FrontStreet Specialty Blend, nutty and rich; and FrontStreet Dark Cocoa Blend, balanced and smooth, all include Brazilian coffee, which adds chocolate and cream aromas, a soft sweet-sour-bitter balance, and the stability that makes extraction predictable.