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Tasting Notes: Bakers Chocolate, Brown Sugar, Dried Plum, Walnut
Roast: Medium
Varietal: Catucai, Mundo Novo, Catuai Red and Yellow
Process: Natural
Producer: Various smallholders
Brazil Cerrado Green Coffee
Although Cerrado is one of Brazil’s relatively new coffee-growing regions, it has quickly risen to earn a reputation for high quality specialty coffee. Cerrado coffee offers coffee roasters consistency. The land is kept balanced and fertile by well-defined wet and dry seasons and abundant sunlight. Coupled with advanced farming practices and the entrepreneurial spirit from Cerrado’s coffee producers, the region has become renowned. Most medium-to-large-sized farms span anywhere between a few hundred acres to massive powerhouse estates.
Cerrado lies in the southwest of Minas Gerais. The land is relatively flat, with altitudes ranging from 900 to 1250 meters above sea level. The level land allows farmers to practice mechanical harvesting that is out of reach for coffee farms on steep hills.
However, Cerrado doesn’t stop with coffee. The region is a vast tropical and subtropical biome that includes forests, marshlands and grassland. Covering more than 20%of Brazil, it is the largest savannah in South America and one of the most biodiverse ecoregions on earth. Roughly 5% of the species on earth call Cerrado home. The ecosystem covers around 21% of Brazil.
How is Brazilian coffee graded?
Brazil was the first country to implement a formal grading system for classifying coffee beans. In 2002, the Brazilian Official Classification (Classificação Oficial Brasileira, or COB) was standardized by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA), and they outlined precise protocols for cupping and grading green coffee.
One of the most commonly used quality indicators today is screen size, with the designation 17/18 referring to beans that have passed through a sifter with holes measuring 17/64 to 18/64 of an inch in diameter. While larger beans are often associated with higher quality, screen size is just one of several indicators used to assess coffee quality.
Natural Process Green Coffee from Brazil
It’s always sunny in Cerrado. That’s why coffee producers take advantage of the favorable climate by developing their own unique processing method for naturals. While most origins harvest cherries and dry the fruits on raised beds, the natural process in Brazil means using as little intervention as possible.
Coffee cherries dry while they’re still on the tree, allowing extra time for sugars and flavors to concentrate with minimal fermentation. This method results in an intensely rich, sweetness like this Cerrado Natural that’s overflowing with luscious notes of baker’s chocolate, brown sugar, dried plum, and walnut.
Brazilian Coffee History
The Brazilian coffee trade began in 1727 when Arabica seeds were smuggled into the country, and within a century, Brazil became the world's largest coffee producer, dominating agricultural exports. During the café com leite (coffee with milk) era in the 1880s, São Paulo's coffee industry flourished while dairy production thrived in Minas Gerais, with agrarian oligarchs wielding significant political power to enhance production and export.
Following the abolition of slavery in 1888, an influx of immigrants and laborers contributed to a dramatic increase in coffee output, reaching 80% of the global supply by the 1920s. Today, Brazil accounts for over 33% of the world's coffee supply and generates over 8 million jobs in the coffee sector. Despite recent production challenges, the USDA forecasts an increase in Brazil’s coffee exports. Both Arabica and Robusta production are expected to rise in response to declining production volume in other coffee-producing countries
