Can you smell that Brazilian coffee? Delicious. Why don’t you pull up a chair and sit down for a cup of Brazilian coffee as we talk about the worlds larges producer of coffee. Most folks don’t drink very much Brazilian coffee by itself, although most of us drink a lot of Brazilian coffee generally without really knowing it. So let’s first explore the country that is Brazil and produces all these Brazilian coffee beans for our enjoyment.
About Brazilian coffee
Brazil has a population of around 200 million coffee drinkers. Okay, I jest a bit, not everyone in Brazil drinks coffee, but that is their population nonetheless. Brazil is also the worlds eighth largest country by economic output as measured by GDP. As far as the overall size of the county is concerned, Brazil is the fifth largest country in area, behind Russia, Canada, China and then the United States. Brazil is obviously a huge exporter and producer of coffee, both of the Robusta and Arabica varietals.
Robusta makes up about 20% of the Brazilian coffee bean production and is mostly used in instant coffees and many coffees available in the supermarket that come pre-ground in those cans. I won’t mention any names because many of the big coffee roasters that bring us our daily brew are changing as I write and introducing 100% Arabica coffees.
Brazil produces more than double the amount of coffee than its nearest competitor which surprisingly for many of us is Vietnam. Brazil produces more than 2 million tons of it per year with Vietnam falling short of supplying less than 1 million tons per year.
Brazil as you can imagine has a terrific climate for growing their Brazilian coffee which is not as bright or acidic as coffee grown in many other areas of the world due to it’s lack of high altitude coffee cultivation. Though as with many other coffee producing countries, organic Brazilian coffee, fair trade coffee and shade grown coffees are becoming more popular as folks demand this coffee due to the harmful affects on the environment that most current coffee farming methods employ.
Some types of Brazilian coffee to try
As I said most of us drink some Brazilian coffee some of the time as most coffee pods, espresso pods and especially espresso coffee beans that you use in your semi automatic espresso machines use a lot of Brazilian coffee in the mix. Most espresso coffee in fact is a mix of coffees rather than single origin or single country coffee beans.
A couple of Brazilian coffees that you might like to try include Brazil Santos from the coast near Rio de Janeiro. This coffee is produced with the dry method which I personally love. The cherry of the bean is allowed to dry onto and then fall off of the Brazilian coffee bean which imparts the wonderfully sweet flavor of the fruit onto the bean. Another Brazilian coffee to try is the Brazil Mogiana which is a nice complex coffee with nutty overtones and a clean finish.
I’m not going to lie to you. I enjoy coffee from practically anywhere in the world. Though frankly as much as I find Brazilian coffee to be pleasant, I find it milder and more superficial then the African coffees which are my favorites. Nevertheless, if you are serious about expanding your palette and becoming a more rounded coffee drinker, you must at least try Brazilian coffee.