All About Brazilian Coffee: Its History, Evolution, and Importance at Covoya

Latin America is certainly known for its wide variety of coffee-producing countries, and Brazil is no exception. Coveted for its often nutty and savory profile, Brazilian coffee is unique in many ways, from its classification system down to the way it’s processed. 

Today, Brazil is home to approximately 300,000 coffee farmers in 2,000 municipalities — but it hasn’t always been that way. Find out how Brazil became a major player in the coffee trade and why it remains a popular export in modern times.

The History of Brazilian Coffee

It may come as a surprise that American colonists had been drinking coffee for fifty years before the first coffee seed was planted in one of Portugal’s own colonies not far from the Amazon river in 1727. A hundred years later, Brazil accounted for 30% of the world’s coffee supply. A hundred years after that, in the 1920s, Brazil held a virtual monopoly, producing 80% of the world’s coffee.

Although Brazil’s market share peaked at 80% 90 years ago, its continuing status as the world’s largest coffee producer gave the country considerable influence on the market over the years, including the ability to affect pricing — intentionally and unintentionally. It is often noted that when Brazil sneezes, the coffee world catches a cold. On July 18, 1975, Brazil sneezed. A “black frost” destroyed over 70 percent of the crop and as a result coffee prices doubled world-wide.

But Brazil’s influence over the years also took the form of leadership in scientific research and promotion. Brazil was a founding leader of the Pan-American Coffee Bureau, which can be credited with inventing the idea of taking a “coffee break,” with an ad campaign created in the early 1950s.

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Brazilian Coffee Cupping Notes

The vast amount of land planted with coffee in Brazil ensures a wide array of cup characteristics; however, in general, Brazilian coffees tend to be nutty in taste. Fruity flavors tend toward the savory and chocolate notes are very common. Acidity is usually mild. 

Brazilian Coffee Regions

The Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association identifies 30 coffee growing regions. Key among these are the Mogiana regions in Minas Gerais and the growing regions in Bahia. 

The Mogiana coffee growing region in São Paulo, Brazil rose to fame during the last half of the 18th century, when more than half of European coffee came from Saint Domingue in Haiti. Following the slave revolt and independence, coffee production fell dramatically, and Brazil stepped in to fill the void. 

While coffee production in Haiti never rebounded, the demand for coffee throughout Europe did return. Demand in America was increasing rapidly as well. And so, the Camargo family coffee plantation in Brazil flourished, along with new coffee plantations throughout São Paulo. Today, the name Mogiana remains synonymous with Brazilian coffee.

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Growing Altitude of Brazilian Coffee Beans

If you include Robusta, coffee grows at a wide variety of altitudes in Brazil, but generally, Arabica is grown from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. 

Producer Type

While Brazil is home to some of the world’s largest coffee estates, there are also small and medium-sized farms. Covoya's “Café Delas” green coffee comes from farms owned and operated by women. 

Café Delas was created to empower women in the coffee industry. The concept was based on the idea that, given better access to resources traditionally held out of their reach and an equal voice in leadership, women will not only produce fine specialty grade coffee but they will create positive impacts within their families and communities as a result.

What’s more, Covoya developed a quantitative index known as the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) within the program structure. WEAI was designed to define and measure empowerment as the ability to not only make decisions related to agriculture, but also an individual’s access to the “material and social resources needed to carry out those decisions.” Developed in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, and International Food Policy Research Institute, the WEAI considers five realms that Covoya has embraced as relevant to the success of Café Delas:

1. Production: Decision making power relative to all aspects of the farm.
2. Income: Real control over income and expenditures.
3. Resources: “Ownership, access to, and decision-making power" over production resources, including land, equipment, durables, and credit.
4. Leadership: Active and meaningful membership in economic and/or social groups, including opportunity for and comfort with public speaking.
5. Time: How time is divided among the agricultural “business,” domestic tasks, and leisure activity.

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Brazilian Coffee Processing Methods

Coffee processing in Brazil is primarily natural/dry but also includes fully washed and a variety of semi-washed processes. Like coffee produced elsewhere, coffee farmers in Brazil are exploring variations in processes. 

When the dry or natural process is used, the coffee that’s still in the cherry is sun-dried and turned regularly on a patio or raised bed — generally for 3-6 weeks, when the dry cherry is hulled off the bean. Washed processing includes depulping, fermentation, washing, grading, drying, rest, milling, and sorting. Different semi-washed methods include a combination of these two approaches.

Brazilian Coffee Plant Species

According to the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association, there are over 40 coffee plant varieties being grown in Brazil. Among the most common Yellow Bourbon, Açaia Yellow Catuai, Red Catuai, and New World.

Covoya's Brazilian Coffee Quality Standards

Covoya purchases the highest quality Brazilian coffees, graded as “fine cup.” With a presence in Brazil spanning over 15 years, Covoya entered the coffee sector in 2004 and quickly grew to become one of the largest players in the traditional coffee space. With a strong team in place and a growing track record for successful execution and an efficient coffee infrastructure already in place, Rahul Banka, Vice President of Covoya Coffee in Brazil, began to explore Brazil’s emerging specialty coffee sector. 

Covoya sourced its first Brazilian specialty coffees in 2012, introducing the Eagle specialty brand just two years later. Thanks to the success of those efforts, Covoya's Brazil leadership decided it was time to make a larger commitment. In 2016, Banka spearheaded the launch of a Specialty Coffee Division within Covoya Coffee Brazil, with Coffee veteran and Brazilian coffee industry expert Nelson Carvalhaes leading the way.

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What does Brazilian coffee taste like?

Brazilian coffee skews nutty and often and tends to feature more savory and chocolatey fruit flavors.

Where do Brazilian green coffee beans grow? 

There are 30 different growing regions identified by the Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association. For Covoya, our main regions include the Mogiana regions in Minas Gerais and the growing regions in Bahia. Other regions include Alta Mogiana in São Paulo, Montanhas do Espírito Santo, and Noroeste/Norte do Rio de Janeiro. 

How are Brazilian green coffee beans processed?

Brazilian green coffee is processed using either the dry/natural method, semi-washed, or fully washed processing. 

How are Brazilian coffee beans graded?

The Classificacao Oficial Brasileira is Brazil’s classification system for grading coffee. The organization assigns a number to a coffee lot based on the number of defects in a sample. The lower the number, the better — this means that there are fewer defects.

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