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Brazilian Santos Green Coffee Beans (Not Roasted)

$6.44
Availability: In stock
Brazilian Santos Green Coffee Beans (Not Roasted) is available to buy in 1 pound increments

Brazilian Santos Green Coffee Beans (Not Roasted). Sold in 1 pound (16 oz) increments.

If you like your coffee mild with milk and sugar then our Brazilian Santos green coffee beans are the perfect choice.

Santos Arabica coffee beans are widely acknowledged to be the best grown in Brazil. Low in acidity, with a soft, light, smooth, creamy body, lovely aroma and sweet, nutty and dark chocolate overtones, the beans are ideal for drip coffee but also make an excellent base for espresso blends, due to their mild flavor and great crema.

Santos coffee beans take their name from Brazil’s largest coffee seaport through which most of the higher quality beans grown in Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil’s two largest coffee producing regions, are exported. Lower grade Arabica beans and Robusta varieties are exported via Rio de Janeiro.

Coffee production in Brazil began in the early 18th century, when Portugal commissioned Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Mello Palheta to steal a coffee plant from the French colony of Guyana. It is alleged that the wife of the governor smuggled a cutting of the coffee plant into a bouquet which she presented to him on his departure. Within a century Brazil had become the largest coffee producer in the world, exporting to both Europe and America.

The Brazilian environment and climate provide ideal growing conditions for coffee with medium to high elevations and a mild sub-tropical climate characterized by steady year round temperatures, humid and rainy summers and dry winters. Many different varieties of coffee tree are grown in Brazil but the most common is the dwarf Caturra variety which produces a consistently good flavor and high yield and is suitable for large scale mechanized harvesting.

Historically, the Brazilian coffee industry has been geared towards quantity rather than quality and characterized by large scale commercial production. Brazilian coffee was cheap, homogenous and often bland and invariably sold as a blend. However, since the early 1990s when quota and protection laws were swept away, the coffee industry has been revolutionized. Today certain sub-regions are developing a growing reputation for producing outstanding single estate, super premium coffees. Notable examples within the Sao Paolo and Minas Gerais regions include:

Sul de Minas - the heart of Brazilian coffee country, a region of rugged rolling hills enjoying a mild annual temperature and high altitudes, it produces around 30% of Brazilian coffee characterized by a full body, citrus notes and fruity aromas.

Cerrado de Minas - the country’s first region to be awarded the Designation of Origin (Cerrado Mineiro) status, similar to an outstanding wine growing region, this high, semi-arid plateau enjoying clear, dry weather during the drying season produces specialty coffees with higher acidity, medium body and sweetness.

The Mata de Minas region - with a warm and humid climate, this forested region produces specialty coffees that are typically sweet with citrus, caramel or chocolate notes.

Mogiana – famed for its rich, red volcanic soils, this rugged region produces very sweet and well balanced specialty coffees.

The vast majority of Santos coffee beans are densely grown at altitudes of up to 1,000 meters above sea level, often in large open areas that were previously grassland on “fazendas”, large plantations covering hundreds of acres. However, although they dominate coffee production by volume these only account for 4% of all farms. The vast majority (over 70%) of Brazilian coffee farms or “fincas” are less than 10 hectares in size and typically family run.

Most coffee is harvested from May to August or September, usually in one huge crop. The beans are then processed using the dry or natural process, with the entire crop spread out to dry in the sun on huge patios the size of football fields, or increasingly, the “pulped natural” method which pulps the cherry before drying. Both methods impart a rich and fruity flavor and added body to the green coffee beans.

Four Arabica varietals are grown in the Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais regions: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra and Mundo Novo. Of these, Bourbon is considered to be the best. Bourbon is a sub-species of Arabica grown at high altitude from seeds originally brought to Brazil in the late nineteenth century from the French colony of Reunion (previously Bourbon) in the Indian Ocean. The original parent stock was planted in Bourbon in 1708. The Bourbon varietal is fruitier and brighter than most other Brazilian coffees and makes an excellent espresso.

Santos beans prefer a lower roast temperature and taste best when brought to a Vienna or Full City (medium to dark roast) as they can develop a bitter, ashy taste if roasted too dark. The beans should be used within 2 to 3 weeks of roasting as they lose their acidity and flavor if kept too long.