Is Brazilian Coffee Underrated?

For more than 100 years Brazil has been the world’s leading producer of coffee beans.

However, quantity and quality are two entirely different things, and if you mention Brazil to a real coffee snob, he’ll probably roll his eyes and give you that condescending hipster smirk.

Brazilian coffee history starts with a forbidden flirt.

In 1727 Sergeant Major Francisco de Melo Palheta went to Cayenne in French Guiana to help negotiate in a land dispute. However, instead of doing diplomatic work, he seduced the wife of the local mayor.

In return, she gave him a coffee seedling hidden in a bouquet on his departure, and that’s how coffee came to Brazil.

Palheta brought the plant with him back to the Northern Brazilian state of Para, but it wasn’t until the plant made it down South close to Rio de Janeiro and Santos (the harbour town of Sao Paulo) that it started to thrive.

In 1830, around a hundred years after its introduction, Brazilian coffee had become a success story and was responsible for a third of global production.

WHY IS BRAZILIAN COFFEE FAMOUS TODAY?

Due to slave labour and an aggressive, industrial approach to farming, production increased rapidly, and Brazil became the largest coffee exporter in the world.

In 1888 slavery was abolished in Brazil. It was feared that this would lead to a decrease in coffee production. However, the opposite happened thanks to government involvement and increased immigration.

Coffee production in Brazil continued, and in the early 1900s, there was Brazilian coffee in four out of five cups consumed worldwide. (Source)

What happened in Brazil had a significant effect on not only the global coffee trade but also on the evolution of coffee consumption.

The cause and effect also went the other way; coffee production has shaped the Brazilian landscape, agriculture, and society as a whole.

THE BRAZILIAN PULPED NATURAL

Another thing that is unique to Brazilian coffee is the processing method: the pulped natural method.

In other parts of the world, coffee is typically either wet or dry-processed. These methods tend to create more exciting flavour profiles: either very clean and acidic or extremely fruity and fermented.

The pulped natural method (or honey process as it’s referred to in other countries) lets the coffee seed dry with the mucilage still on the bean. This process enhances the sweetness and opens up other notes.

BRAZIL COFFEE FLAVOR

Typically, beans from Brazil have flavour notes such as chocolate, hazelnut, and caramel. Often it’s a low-acid coffee. It’s good without being exciting, as opposed to the more subtle coffees from East Africa or Central America.

This kind of coffee has given birth to the Italian espresso culture and much of modern coffee and works great as the base of a cappuccino.

You can try a variety of Brazilian coffee from our roastery shop.