Hello & Happy Thursday. Charles here with another weekly issue of Coffee Enthused. I hope you enjoy!
Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the world (by a wide margin). Unfortunately, "Brazilian" has become shorthand for a single flavor profile. A nutty, chocolatey, and low-acid cup that serves as the dependable base of a supermarket blend. At the same time, Brazilian coffee is an origin most readers have unknowingly drank plenty of.
Despite the perception, Brazilian coffee varies widely in flavor profile. It entirely depends on the growing region. The state of Minas Gerais alone produces half the national crop. CONAB's 2026 survey puts the state at 33.4 million bags against roughly 66.7 million nationally.
Want a free bag of Brazilian coffee from Minas Gerais? Check out our referral program at the end of this email.
Inside it, Sul de Minas sits at 3,100 ft. with average temperatures around 71°F. The result is a full-bodied cup with slightly citric notes. It’s the cup that most people picture when they think of Brazilian coffee.
Cerrado de Minas experiences sharply divided wet summers and dry winters. At an altitude of 2,600 to 4,300 ft, the result is a higher-acid, medium-bodied and sweet cup of coffee.
Matas de Minas yields a sweet flavor profile with citrus, caramel or chocolate. In São Paulo and Mogiana, the 3,000 to 3,600 ft. elevation, combined with cooler average temperatures of 68°F, results in a very sweet and balanced cup. Bahia is the outlier: warm, the highest productivity in the country, almost entirely mechanized, and sweet with low acidity and a full body.
That’s a handful of variations, all wearing the same general label of “Brazilian”. You can experience a variety of flavor profiles by simply paying attention to the growing region inside Brazil.
Timing is on our side right now. Brazil's harvest runs May through September, which puts the peak-freshness on shelves July through December. We’re right inside the sweet spot, with new harvests happening now.
Part Two goes into processing next month, and why Brazil's naturals became the reference point for the style.
An r/nespresso thread on refilling genuine pods with foil seals or silicone caps. Answers lean in both directions. Several owners report that silicone caps damaged their machines. Others point out that all this effort defeats the convenience of Nespresso in the first place.
The standard bloom technique is to pour roughly twice the grounds' weight in water, let it drain, discard the first liquid, and then brew as normal. After various tests, one r/pourover reader found pouring the bloom back in yielded the best cup.
Issue #4 carried the Opus 2's launch specs: 48mm conical burrs and a stepless dial for $199. The uncomfortable finding is that a grinder can lose every cup comparison to a Timemore Millab M01 and still be its owner's daily driver on speed and workflow alone, with long-term reliability the question nobody can answer yet.
The standard answer to a stalling brewer and a muddy cup is a better grinder. An r/pourover regular with a first-generation Fellow Opus found 3 changes fixed their issue. A flat-bottom brewer (rather than conical), a 90 to 100 second bloom at three times the dose, and no swirl at any point.
The SCA's Peter Giuliano defines freshness by CO₂ rather than taste memory. Beans degas rapidly over the first 20 days after roasting, then slows dramatically after that. Ground coffee for about an hour. Grinding expands surface area which results in rapid CO₂ over the course of minutes.
J.M. Smucker (which owns Folgers, Café Bustelo and Dunkin's at-home coffee) told investors on August 26 that easing green coffee costs have let it lower retail prices. Also, that price-conscious shoppers are brewing at home instead of buying out. ICE certified arabica stocks sit near a three-year low at the same time.
An r/espresso poster found a roaster's guide advising a shorter ratio for older beans. Three members independently report that they grind finer as a bag ages. The reason is the degassing curve seen from the espresso end: coffee that has lost its CO₂ resists water less, so an unchanged grind runs faster and under-extracts.
An r/keurig owner put an instant-read thermometer in a water-only brew from their K-Iced Essentials and measured 149°F, against the 195 to 205°F touted as the standard. Other owners in the same thread report 185°F and 197°F on a commercial K150.
James Hoffmann revisits an index he first wrote about over a decade ago — the minutes a barista must work, at their gross hourly wage, to afford one cappuccino at their own café. This time with far more data, and the spread between countries is enormous.
Thanks for reading ☕
— Charles @ Coffee Enthused
P.S. Coffee Enthused is (obviously) a newer newsletter. With the goal of building a community of like-minded coffee enthusiasts over the coming years. To that end, check back regularly for updates. And I’d love to hear your feedback along the way.
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