Brazil is the unofficial king of the world's coffee producer. It has been the largest coffee producer for over 150 years. In 20, Brazil still has some nice statistics. It currently grows about a third of the world's coffee. However, in the past, this number was slightly 80%.
The first coffee in Brazil was in 1727 and was planted by Francisco de Melo Palheta in the Para region of the north of the country. But the true story of origin has a myth in it. According to the story, Palheta traveled to French Guiana on a diplomatic mission. The coffee beans were given to him hidden in a bouquet because he seduced the governor's wife. For the first time, coffee was for domestic consumption only and remained an unimportant crop until it began to work south. This new plant has been passed down from garden to garden as much from farm to farm as a crop.
After the plant spread, commercial coffee production began. The main production point was in the Paraiba River, relatively close to Rio de Janeiro. This area is a perfect choice for coffee, not only because the terrain was ideal, but also because it is close to Rio de Janeiro, which is great for export.
Coffee production stood out between 1820 and 1830 when Brazil became a producer not only for the country but for the entire global market. Those who started producing coffee also became incredibly rich and very strong and were called "coffee barons".
By 1830, Brazil had become a top producer of 30% of the world's coffee. By the age of 10, it had risen to forty percent, although the massive increase in supply had led to a drop in the overall price of coffee.
On And Off Years
Because Brazil was such a dominant supplier of coffee to the world, whatever Brazil did had a huge impact on global prices. This was the alternative cycle of Brazil's annual yield. Over the years, it has become clear that Brazil's harvest fluctuates between high and low yields every year. Some work has been done in recent years to mitigate this effect, with smaller variations and greater stability from year to year. The reason for this change in yield is that the coffee tree will naturally have an alternating cycle between large and small plants, but this can be controlled by light pruning. Light pruning was not a common practice in Brazil, growers opted for heavy pruning, so there was little harvest the following year.
There have been dramatic events in the past, such as the black frost of 1975, which reduced next year's harvest by almost 75%. As a result of the frost, the overall price of coffee has almost doubled. They were two years in a row in 2000 and 2001, resulting in a huge harvest in 2002, with huge coffee production. This coincided with another long period of low coffee prices caused by the surplus coffee on the world market.
Modern Coffee Production
Brazil is without a doubt the most developed and industrialized coffee-producing country in the world. Focusing on production, it has not maintained a high reputation for producing the highest quality coffees. Most large farms use relatively raw harvesting techniques, such as strip harvesting, in which the entire branch is deprived of cherries at once. If the plantations are large and flat (common in larger coffee farms in Brazil), they shake the cherries off the branches with harvesters. None of the methods takes into account maturity and, as a result, there may be large amounts of unripe cherries in the harvested coffee.
For a long time, Brazil also processed most of the coffee by drying all the cherries on the terrace (see Natural Process). The introduction of the natural pulp process in the early 1990s really helped to improve the quality, but for years it has been fighting against specialty coffee growers in Brazil - who can pick, wash coffee and create interesting varieties at higher altitudes. the country's reputation for producing low-acid, low-weight coffees, which are best suited for espresso blends.
Although much of Brazil's coffee grows below the heights best suited for quality, there are still some very interesting and delicious coffees out there. Similarly, the country produces very clean and sweet coffee with high acidity, which many (quite well) find delicious and affordable.
Robusta
In addition to Arabica, Brazil is one of the world's leading producers of Robusta. In Brazil, Robusta is commonly called the colon and is produced in regions such as Rondonia.
Home Consumption
Brazil has actively tried to increase domestic coffee consumption with greater success. While children are offered coffee at school at an early age, they can raise their eyebrows, but in Brazil, consumers compete with the United States. Raw coffee cannot be imported into Brazil, which means that most of the coffee grown in Brazil is consumed there, although the quality of coffee for domestic consumption is lower than that of exports.
Cafes have emerged in big cities, although the price of coffee in these places is similar to the best cafes in the US and Europe, making it another symbol of the growing gap between rich and poor in Brazil.
Traceability
High-quality Brazilian coffees are usually traceable to a certain farm (Fazenda), while lower-quality coffee is a bulk batch and cannot be traced. The image of the coffee marked "Santos" came from the port of Santos and the name has nothing to do with the place where the coffee was grown. Brazil significantly violates the general rule that there is a link between traceability and quality, as there are farms in Brazil that produce more coffee than the whole of Bolivia. And, although coffee can be drawn due to the size of the production, it may not make you feel better as a result.
Taste Profile
A better Brazilian coffee usually has a low level of acidity, difficult to test, and is sweet, often with a chocolate and walnut flavor.