Brazil

Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world by a wide margin — roughly a third of all the green coffee shipped globally comes from here. That scale changes everything about how Brazilian coffee works. Farms are larger on average (some are thousands of hectares), mechanized harvesting is common in the flatter growing regions, and the country has enough internal consumption to cushion price shocks that would devastate smaller origins.

The main growing areas are Minas Gerais (about half of total production, split across the Sul de Minas, Cerrado, and Mogiana sub-regions), Espírito Santo (mostly robusta/conilon), São Paulo, Bahia, and Paraná. Altitudes are relatively low compared to Central American or African origins — 800 to 1,400 meters is typical — which historically meant Brazilian beans graded lower on the cupping table. Modern agronomy has narrowed that gap: selected lots from the Cerrado's flat, high plateaus and the mountainous Sul de Minas now routinely score 86-88 points on the SCA scale.

Flavor-wise, Brazilian coffee is the opposite of East African. Where Kenyan reads structured and acidic, Brazilian reads round and sweet. Classic notes are peanut, milk chocolate, nougat, toasted almond, and brown sugar. The body is heavy, the acidity is soft, and the finish is usually clean. This is the reason most commercial espresso blends are 40-70% Brazilian — the origin provides body, crema, and milk-friendliness that other origins don't reliably deliver at any comparable price point.

Processing in Brazil leans toward natural and pulped-natural (the local term for honey). Water is relatively scarce in the Cerrado, which made naturals the historical default. Modern specialty Brazilian plays with extended fermentation, anaerobic, and experimental naturals — but the bedrock is still sun-dried cherry on patios, dried slowly over two to three weeks.