How Does Pulped Natural Change Coffee Cultivation?

Pulped natural sits between washed and natural processing. After harvest, cherries are washed and floated, then a machine removes skin and pulp, but the beans skip tank fermentation and go straight to sun drying. Brazil, the largest producer, uses this method to control fermentation in beans that still carry mucilage, cutting water use and drying time.

Brazilian coffee output accounts for about one-third of the global total, and the country's coffee cultivation dates back to the 19th century. Its cups tend toward full body, low acidity and nutty or cocoa notes, which suits espresso blends. FrontStreet Coffee sells a Brazil Cerrado everyday bean and a Queen Farm single origin, both using the pulped natural process.

As the world's largest coffee producer, Brazil has also developed its own distinctive processing methods, among which the Pulped Natural process is a technique that falls between washed and natural. This article will outline the specific steps of pulped natural, its advantages over traditional natural processing, and the distribution of Brazil's main specialty coffee regions. It will also draw on two beans currently sold by FrontStreet Coffee—Brazil Cerrado and Queen Farm—to help readers understand how this processing method performs in actual cupping.

Brazil is the world's largest coffee-producing country, and thanks to its unique geographical and climatic conditions, its coffee-growing industry has been able to develop rapidly. As early as the 19th century, coffee cultivation had already spread across the entire country; to this day, Brazil's coffee output still accounts for one-third of the global total, earning it the title of "Coffee Kingdom."

For a long time, Brazilian coffee has won the favor of many coffee lovers with its full body, low acidity, and nutty and cocoa-like aromas. Its overall flavor tends to be balanced, and combined with its outstanding value for money, Brazilian coffee is often found in many espresso blends. In addition, FrontStreet Coffee currently offers an entry-level selection of FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado everyday drinking coffee beans and a single-origin FrontStreet Brazil Queen Farm coffee bean, both of which use Brazil's original Pulped Natural process.

What exactly is Brazilian pulped natural? Simply put, pulped natural is a method that falls between washed and natural. The first half of the pulped natural process is similar to washed processing—after harvesting, the coffee cherries are washed and floated, then a machine removes the skin and pulp of the cherries, but after that they do not go through the tank fermentation stage used in washed processing, and are instead directly sun-dried. Compared with traditional natural processing, it includes an extra step of removing the pulp and skin before sun-drying, which allows control over the fermentation degree of the coffee beans that still carry mucilage after the skin and pulp are removed.

This method can reduce water usage, allow more precise control of the drying process, lower fermentation risk, and because the pulp and skin have been removed, it can also shorten the sun-drying time and save time costs. Therefore, compared with the natural process most commonly used in Brazil earlier on, this method improves the cleanliness and ripeness of the coffee fruit and produces coffee with a more balanced and uniform mouthfeel. However, not all Brazilian coffee regions currently use pulped natural processing, and some areas still rely mainly on natural processing.

Brazil is vast and rich in resources. Of its 26 states, 17 grow and produce coffee. The vast majority of Brazil's coffee is grown in four states: Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, Sao Paulo, and Parana. Together, these four major producing regions account for more than 80% of Brazil's total coffee output, and they cultivate both Arabica and Robusta varieties.

But when it comes to Brazilian specialty coffee, it is mainly concentrated in Sao Paulo state and Minas Gerais. Among them, Sao Paulo state produces only Arabica beans, and the highest coffee-growing altitude in all of Brazil is found in Sao Paulo's sub-region Mogiana, with an average growing altitude of 900-1100 meters. This region, together with Minas Gerais' sub-regions Cerrado and Sul de Minas, forms Brazil's three most important coffee-producing regions.

Mogiana is located in the northern part of Sao Paulo state, near the Sul de Minas region. Its name comes from the famous Mogiana Railway here, which was Brazil's first railway and greatly promoted the region's economic development and trade. The land here is rich in minerals, and the terrain is uneven and mostly mountainous, so unlike other low-altitude areas in Brazil that can use machinery for large-scale coffee harvesting, harvesting here is basically done by hand.

In this region, a relatively well-known estate is Fazenda Rainha, also known as Queen Farm. This estate has a long history of coffee cultivation, grows mostly Yellow Bourbon (a Bourbon variant unique to Sao Paulo state in Brazil, whose ripe fruit is orange-yellow), and places great emphasis on environmental protection and coffee quality, so Queen Farm frequently appears on the Cup of Excellence (COE) lists in Brazil.

This FrontStreet Brazil Queen Farm Yellow Bourbon coffee bean sourced by FrontStreet Coffee uses pulped natural processing. On the palate, it has fruity sweetness, flavors of sugarcane, chocolate, and nuts such as peanuts, a faint clean bitterness, and a smooth, delicate mouthfeel. It is a very good choice for people who do not particularly like acidity.

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.