Brazil Coffee Bean Grading System Brazil Coffee Growing Characteristics Flavor and Taste Comparison of Different Pour-Over Methods

"Nutty, chocolatey, smooth, and balanced"—these are the most commonly used terms to describe Brazilian coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's greatest appreciation for Brazilian coffee is its "consistency," as it delivers on both supply volume and flavor quality. The second aspect is "affordability"—for beginners just starting out, there's nothing better than being able to experience distinct regional flavors at an approachable price point. If this is your first time trying Brazilian coffee, FrontStreet Coffee recommends the Cerrado coffee beans. This is a Red Bourbon variety processed using the pulped natural method, featuring classic Brazilian flavors, and priced at 25 yuan per 100 grams—truly excellent value for money. Now, let FrontStreet Coffee guide you into this world-renowned coffee powerhouse.

Brazil features flat terrain and utilizes large-scale, semi-mechanized farming practices. The main producing regions include Mogiana in São Paulo state, Paraná state, Bahia state, Espírito Santo state, and Minas Gerais state. Among these, FrontStreet Coffee considers the Mogiana region in São Paulo and the Cerrado region in Minas Gerais to offer superior quality.

As you may know, FrontStreet Coffee's Daily Bean series aims to discover coffee beans from various producing regions worldwide that represent their respective origins, allowing consumers to experience global coffee flavors at affordable prices. As the world's largest coffee-producing country, Brazil naturally holds a prominent place in FrontStreet Coffee's Daily Bean series.

FrontStreet Coffee selected a Red Bourbon coffee bean from the Cerrado region, featuring distinct nutty and chocolate notes with moderate body and smoothness—making it an excellent choice for those who prefer less acidic coffee. Beyond the Daily Bean series, Brazilian coffee also appears in FrontStreet Coffee's seasonal drip bag series, demonstrating Brazil's indispensable role in classic coffee flavors as a producing nation.

The Cerrado Region: A Triumph of Coffee Technology

The Cerrado region represents a triumph of Brazilian coffee technology. An increasing number of large coffee plantations in Cerrado employ high-tech production methods, extensively cultivating the high-quality Red Bourbon variety. As a pure, ancient Arabica coffee variety, its flavor quality is unquestionable, making this region's coffee quality remarkably consistent. The processing method also utilizes Brazil's characteristic pulped natural technique, leveraging the local climate to reduce defect numbers while providing substantial body.

Premium Selection: Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon

Naturally, beyond the Daily Bean series, FrontStreet Coffee also offers an advanced-level coffee bean from Brazil. For this selection, FrontStreet Coffee chose the Yellow Bourbon from Queen's Farm in the Mogiana region. Queen's Farm ranks among Brazil's finest specialty farms. As a winner of the first Cup of Excellence competition, its capabilities are truly exceptional.

Queen's Farm takes particular pride in its Yellow Bourbon coffee beans. Yellow Bourbon is a natural mutation of Red Bourbon, named for its yellow-ripening fruit cherries. The mutation typically occurs in only about 10% of cases, making it particularly precious. In terms of flavor, Yellow Bourbon exhibits enhanced sweetness and clarity. Furthermore, the farm employs meticulous natural processing—a stark contrast to the crude natural processing methods of Brazil's past. Queen's Farm places great emphasis on drying degree and process, undoubtedly endorsing its exceptional quality.

The FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon coffee beans introduced by FrontStreet Coffee have also been well-received by customers. FrontStreet Coffee uses a medium roast, intentionally extending the Maillard reaction phase to develop sweetness. Consequently, the flavor profile presents nutty notes, cane sugar sweetness, and chocolate aromas.

Brazilian Coffee Bean Classification

Among the coffee-growing countries of Central and South America, Brazil has relatively low altitude. Therefore, unlike countries such as Colombia that emphasize hard beans grown only at high altitudes, Brazil classifies its coffee beans based on four criteria: bean size, defect rate, cupping score, and flavor.

Flavor Classification (from highest to lowest): Strictly Soft, Soft, Softish, Hardish, Rioy (iodine-like flavor).

Defect Rate Classification: Graded by the number of defective beans per 300g of green beans. Six defective beans qualify as NY.2. Completely defect-free beans can be classified as NY.1, but such beans are rare and cannot maintain consistent supply, making NY.2 the best commonly available grade in Brazilian green coffee.

Cupping Quality Classification (from highest to lowest): Fine Cup, Fine, Good Cup, Fair Cup, Poor Cup, Bad Cup. FC (Fine Cup) and GC (Good Cup) are most commonly encountered.

Bean Size Classification: The largest screen size for Brazilian coffee beans is 19, but production is limited, making 17 and 18 screen sizes the highest grades.

Both of FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans are classified as NY.2, the highest grade for green beans.

Brewing Recommendations from FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters: Kono dripper, 88°C water temperature, 15g coffee dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, medium-fine grind (80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve).

For darker roasted coffee beans that emphasize body, FrontStreet Coffee chooses the Kono dripper for brewing. The Kono dripper's feature is its immersion capability, which allows for extracting more coffee substances through immersion, enhancing body. With fewer ribs located at the bottom, it enables the filter paper to adhere closely to the dripper, restricting airflow and thereby slowing water flow to increase contact time between water and coffee grounds.

The water temperature choice of 88°C represents a relatively low brewing temperature that helps avoid extracting excessive undesirable flavors during the brewing process, as darker roasted beans tend to produce more off-flavors.

Brewing Technique

FrontStreet Coffee employs a segmented extraction method: 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then continue pouring in small circular motions to 125g. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. The total extraction time (starting from the bloom) is 2 minutes.

When brewing both FrontStreet Coffee Brazilian coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee maintains consistent brewing techniques.

Flavor Comparison

FrontStreet Coffee can clearly perceive that both Brazilian coffee beans offer relatively full body with distinct nutty and chocolate notes, exhibiting typical characteristics of Brazilian coffee producing regions. The FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Queen's Farm Yellow Bourbon features a cleaner cup profile with better layering and caramel-like sweetness. Meanwhile, the FrontStreet Coffee Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon presents a more rounded overall profile with stable and persistent chocolate flavors.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473