Why Does Brazilian Coffee Have a Strong Nutty Flavor? An Introduction to Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon Coffee Beans

Where does the most coffee come from? Brazil, of course! Brazil is currently the world's largest coffee producer, featuring both large-scale commercial coffee treated as a commodity and specialty coffee led by COE (Cup of Excellence). Despite Brazil's enormous coffee production, it's unfortunate that FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian coffee offerings, both online and offline, only occupy two "spots." Why is this? If you carefully study FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, you'll discover that each coffee has a certain uniqueness. This is because FrontStreet Coffee hopes that everyone can treat their physical stores as experience shops, first considering providing consumers with as many regional flavors as possible, so the selected coffees basically represent the classic flavors of their producing regions. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Brazilian coffee has stable flavors but also a certain uniformity, which of course is closely related to Brazil's highly mechanized production.

Come and learn about FrontStreet Coffee's two Brazilian coffee beans, the first one to make a grand entrance is FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian daily drink bean!

Brazil Cerrado

Country: Brazil
Region: South Minas
Altitude: 1000 meters
Variety: Red Bourbon
Processing Method: Pulped Natural
Flavor: Nuts, chocolate, cream, peanut, caramel

This coffee bean from FrontStreet Coffee comes from Minas Gerais state. The representative coffee producing regions in Minas Gerais include Cerrado and South Minas, both of which are high-altitude areas. Cerrado is located in the western part of Minas Gerais, as a flat plateau with an altitude of 750m-1200m. South Minas is hilly terrain with an altitude of 700m-1200m. Since 1999, among the estates that have won in the Brazil Cup of Excellence competition, South Minas has the highest number. FrontStreet Coffee also recognized the characteristics of high-quality coffee beans in South Minas, so they positioned their daily drink bean here.

The flavor is related to the bean variety. Red Bourbon is what we generally call the Bourbon variety. When the coffee cherries mature, they present a wine-red color, and the coffee beans are relatively round. Bourbon varieties grown at high altitudes typically have better aroma and bright acidity, with flavors similar to red wine when consumed. However, the fermented aroma is not only related to the variety but also the special pulped natural processing method is one of the sources of flavor.

Before 1990, almost all Brazilian coffee used rough natural processing methods, which made Brazilian beans easily tainted with rotten wood or earthy flavors because coffee cherries had to go through two to three weeks of sun exposure, and when encountering rain and re-wetting, they were prone to mold. To change this situation of being at the mercy of the weather, in 1990 Brazil took advantage of its relatively dry climate characteristics and developed the pulped natural method to shorten the processing time.

Pulped natural processing removes the skin and pulp of the coffee cherry, allowing control over the fermentation degree of the coffee beans with mucilage after depulping. Traditional natural processing involves drying with the skin and pulp, making it impossible to observe the fermentation degree of the mucilage. The pulped natural processing method is between natural and washed processing methods, but without the "pool fermentation, clear water rinsing" process of washed processing, instead taking it directly to sunlight for drying. Although the methods seem similar, without the fermentation step, the flavor of the coffee beans is completely different. In the pulped natural processing method, during the removal of coffee cherry skin and pulp, the ripe pulp is easily removed, while the skin of unripe green cherries is not easily processed, allowing for a second screening to filter out unripe fruits and unify the maturity of the coffee cherries. Compared to the natural method, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the cleanliness and maturity of the coffee beans selected and processed in this way will be improved, bringing a more uniform taste to the coffee.

The introduction of pulped natural processing does not mean that all Brazilian producing regions are using it. The Cerrado region with lower humidity still mainly uses natural processing methods, and pulped natural processing in Cerrado is actually a supporting role. However, the Red Bourbon from the Cerrado region that FrontStreet Coffee has acquired is processed using the pulped natural method, with the purpose of shortening the drying time while avoiding contamination of coffee cherries by external factors.

FrontStreet Coffee has another Brazilian coffee bean which is the Queen's Estate on their bean list. This coffee comes from Brazil's Mogiana region, which is very close to southern Minas. Coffee is grown among shrubs, grasslands, and other vegetation. In this area, there are many coffee-growing families, some of which adopt traditional large-scale farm operations, while others adopt small-scale modern operations. Modern technology mixed with mountain coffee cultivation culture has created the highest quality green coffee beans. Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that coffee beans produced in this region have a sugar-like sweetness. Let's look at the green bean information of this coffee:

Brazil Queen's Estate

Region: Brazil Mogiana Region
Estate: Queen's Estate
Altitude: 1400-1950m
Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Processing Method: Natural Processing

Unlike Brazil's large-scale harvesting and processing, Queen's Estate uses refined natural processing, solving the quality degradation problem caused by large-scale centralized processing in Brazil.

FrontStreet Coffee specifically chose Yellow Bourbon coffee beans, which are different from those in Cerrado. The coffee beans of this variety do not turn red like regular coffee cherries when mature, but rather yellow. They were first discovered in Brazil in 1930 and are currently mainly grown in Brazil. It is generally believed that they may have mutated from the hybridization of the red-fruited Bourbon variety and a yellow-fruited Typica variant called "Amerelo de Botocatu" (discovered in São Paulo state in 1871). Due to their lower yield and less resistance to wind and rain, they have not been widely cultivated. However, when grown in high-altitude areas, they exhibit excellent flavor performance and have become more common in recent years.

FrontStreet Coffee discovered an interesting phenomenon when receiving Brazilian green beans - that is, you can see information like "Brazil NY.2 SC - 17/18 FC" on the sacks of Brazilian coffee beans. After understanding, they found this is Brazil's unique three-tier grading method, not adopted by other countries. The reason is that the production area is too large and produces too many beans. To prepare coffee flavors specifically for export, these coffee beans are often mixed, resulting in inconsistent quality that requires "cupping" grading. This way, consumers can roughly know the quality of the coffee just by looking at the green bean information.

Brazilian coffee grading can be said to be very complex. Generally, it needs to be considered from three aspects: defect rate, screen size, and cup quality.

1. Grading by Defect Rate

Brazilian coffee adopts a "deduction method" evaluation approach, grading based on how many defective beans are in every 300 grams of main beans. There are seven levels from No.2 to No.8. If the deduction is below 4, it can be classified as No.2. Of course, coffee beans with no defects can be called No.1, but this situation is rare and cannot maintain a certain supply volume, so Brazil sets No.2 as the highest grade, not No.1.

2. Grading by Bean Size

Screen size: This is screened using a mesh sieve based on 1/64 inch as the standard, with screen sizes usually between 14-20. It should also be noted that the size corresponding to the screen size is the short side of the coffee bean, i.e., the "width." The largest screen size for Brazilian coffee beans is 19, but the production volume is not high, so 17/18 screen size is considered the highest grade.

3. Cup Quality

fine cup | fine | good cup | fair cup | poor cup | bad cup | FC (Fine Cup) and GC (Good Cup) are more common. Many companies or platforms also add processing methods (natural/washed/honey) and estate information.

It should be known that Brazilian coffee was once synonymous with "inferior coffee." Farmers pursued quantity over quality, and even mixed in soybeans, small stones, and other debris. Since Brazilian coffee was named after the port of export, the largest port, Rio (Rio de Janeiro), also became a "notoriously stinky" coffee bean! The emergence of COE was precisely to change the quality of Brazilian coffee beans, and the NY grading system also standardized the quality standards of Brazilian coffee! Therefore, Brazilian coffee was later removed from the list of "inferior beans."

So what kind of flavor presentation do current Brazilian coffee beans have? Next, follow FrontStreet Coffee to explore the mysteries of brewing!

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations:

Filter: KONO
Dose: 15g
Water Temperature: 90℃
Grind Size: Medium grind, 70% passing through No.20 standard sieve
Water-to-coffee ratio: 1:15

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, with the bloom water amount being twice the coffee powder, i.e., 30 grams of water for 30 seconds of blooming. After small stream circular pouring to 125 grams, segment when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225 grams and stop. The entire extraction time is 2 minutes.

Brazil Cerrado flavor: High sweetness, clean, smooth, low acidity, with flavors of peanut, almond, nuts, and chocolate.

Brazil Queen's Estate flavor: Balanced mouthfeel, with the sweetness of sugar cane highlighted in the main notes of almond and cocoa, this is a coffee with good fullness and abundant sweetness.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473