Brazilian Coffee: The Gateway to Specialty

In this episode, I take a deep dive into Brazilian coffee - a variety I personally don't find exciting to drink black, yet ironically is the most important coffee I sell. I share my honest thoughts about why, despite my preference for more fruity and complex African coffees, Brazilian coffee serves as the perfect gateway into specialty coffee for most consumers. I explore how Brazilian coffee connects with people through its smooth, non-offensive profile and incredible versatility, especially when paired with creamer, where it transforms into what I describe as "chocolate milk in your mouth."

Throughout the episode, I discuss the turning point when I realized that my personal preferences needed to take a backseat to what consumers actually want and enjoy. I explain the remarkable consistency and simplicity of Brazilian coffee - how it's forgiving to brew and roast, making it accessible for coffee drinkers at any level. By listening to this episode, you'll gain insights into the coffee industry from a roaster's perspective and understand why sometimes the most unassuming coffee can be the most important bridge between commercial and specialty coffee worlds.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:23 Brazilian Coffee's Importance in the Market
• 3:32 My Personal Coffee Preferences
• 6:31 Why Brazilian Coffee Connects with People
• 8:52 It's Bigger Than Me: Meeting Consumers Where They Are
• 11:42 Simplicity and Consistency in Brazilian Coffee
• 14:41 The Gateway to Specialty Coffee
• 17:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

[00:00:01] Today is April 19th, 2025, and we're doing pretty good right now. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it right now, but here's the thing. I don't love Brazilian coffees. I don't think it's exciting black. It's not the first thing that I grab to or gravitate to when it comes to drinking coffee. I think it's spectacular if you have it with creamer, but it is literally the most important coffee that I sell or look to. We're about to talk about it. We got a couple talking points that I do wanna talk to, but let's go ahead and have a cup of Brazilian coffee.

[00:00:59] This may be brutal for me a little bit because it's about 300 grams of coffee that I may try to finish during this session with you guys. But here we go, cheers.

[00:01:12] This one actually has a little bit more acidity on it. It's not bad, it's smooth. And it mellows down, but that's more so what Brazilians are.

[00:01:28] They are what they are, right? You love them, I hate them and whatnot. I used to, back in the day, that was probably one of the first coffees I've gotten. I stayed away from it because Brazil is the most producing country of coffee. So more than anything, more than you may think that you're not drinking Brazilian coffee, you're probably drinking Brazilian coffee in some shape, fashion, or form. Either as espresso, either as a blend, either as whatever the case may be. It's essentially also the cheapest coffee compared to other coffees in the same lineup.

[00:02:17] That may be different now because of the whole tariff thing, but that's what I've been realizing or witnessing. It's non-offensive, you can drink it black, you can enjoy it and everything, but it's a crowd pleaser because of what it does with creamer, to me. It's magical with creamer, it's like a chocolate milk in your mouth, you know?

[00:02:28] And it's one of those things to where I wonder why that is the case, but it doesn't really matter why that is the case. It is the case that we are dealing with right now. And it's something that I have to realize is that this is what we're drinking. This is what people care about more than anything. I will say it from time to time, but I am a specialty coffee drinker. I like different types of coffees. I love coffees that speak to me, that talk to me, that give me a sense of purpose that I didn't believe that this is what coffee can taste like when you're drinking it, especially when you drink it black. So those are the type of the coffees I like and more than anything, it's not a Brazilian coffee.

[00:03:25] And it will be on here long enough to where we can taste the coffee as it cools. So that'll be interesting to talk to that. But now the acidity has died down quite a bit. It did have a lemony type of Meyer lemon taste, a little sweetness on it. I did brew this at 190 degrees, 20 grams of coffee, 300 grams of water. So I use the Oxo, which I'm really liking a lot, mainly because this is a slow drawdown. That's the story for another day. But let's talk to the talking points real quick.

[00:04:03] Number one, my personal coffee preferences versus what Brazilian coffee offers. So I kind of touched on that already, but I guess really what I'm saying is that I like a lot of African coffees. I like coffees that are dark roast that have some more character when it is a darker roast.

[00:04:25] I gravitate to coffees that can be a Colombian, they can be Guatemalan, Central South American coffees, but they just can't have just that typical type of coffee taste, the chocolatey, the nutty, the molasses, the brown sugar type of taste of coffee that's in your mouth. I like coffees that have more fruit on it. That's just me personally, you know? And Brazilian coffees don't really do that. There's one that I tasted a couple of months ago that had a lot of fruit on it. It was interesting. I think it was more so interesting because it's not a typical Brazilian coffee. If it was any other coffee, I probably would have thought it'd just been okay. But since it came from Brazil and natural characteristics of a Brazilian coffee, it really kind of surprised me.

[00:05:12] Those are more so the coffees that I will go for. And I like blueberries, I like strawberries, I like naturals to an extent. I like wet process. I even like some black honey from time to time. It just depends on the coffee. For a meditation though, don't care for that really. We'll see what we taste in the next couple of days or a couple of weeks. But from my own experience in liking, those are the type of coffees that I like. They speak more to what I like about coffee. I drink my coffee most of the time black. And when I do that, I want to taste it for what it is, for the true essence of what that coffee is. I know I may sound like a snob talking about coffee like this, but that's kind of like where I'm at with this.

[00:06:20] So yeah, so now it's becoming more of a Brazilian type of coffee or what I'm tasting. Okay, so let's go on to the next one.

[00:06:31] Why does coffee connect with people more than others? I believe this coffee connects with people is because it is easy to drink. It is easy to drink as I'm doing right now, black. But if you want to doctor it or change it up or do whatever you want to it, it holds up really well. It just does. This is like one of my go-tos when I'm drinking coffee with creamer. Sometimes I do that. I'm not gonna lie about it. I do that from time to time. And there's no problem with that. And the way that whichever creamer that you use, it just like gives you that good, big warm hug.

[00:07:13] A lot of times when we talk about coffee and when I select coffee, I'm always thinking about the end user involved, meaning that I'm like, okay, would they really like this coffee? How would they like it to be presented? How are they gonna drink it majority of the time? Those are some of the things that go through my head quite a bit.

[00:07:34] And as much as this coffee is not exciting, at least to me, it's extremely versatile and exciting to other people. It's less offensive, it's easy for them to drink. And that's one thing I've noticed when my Amazon reviews lately is that people like something that's smooth, that's easy to drink. And I think that's the reason why it helps with crowds. It's like, it's one of those things to where you have a group of people, they may be different in some different way, but at the end of the day, you wanna try to cater to the majority of the people.

[00:08:10] And when you kinda have this crazy coffee that is probably great for one or two people, that's not really helpful, especially when you're trying to share, it brings more conversation. That's one thing I did notice, especially when I had my coffee club a long time ago. Those are the coffees that kept people there a lot longer, those Brazilians, even the Mexican coffees. If it was like an African coffee or something that was high acidity on it, or even like a light roast, people will just be okay with it, but it just didn't really do it for them. So I think that's the reason why people gravitate to the coffees quite a bit.

[00:08:53] Okay, the turning point, when I realize it's bigger than me, I'm just one person, you know? It's bigger than me because at the end of the day, I'm trying to sell coffee to people. And I think the best introduction to good tasting coffee is a Brazilian coffee.

[00:09:15] It's easy to drink. It hits those characteristics that people are used to when it comes to coffee. It's nicely roasted, it's fresh, so they can see that it's better than the things that they currently have if it's already not specialty. It gives them a reason to want to seek more. And that's really where I'm at.

[00:09:35] It's bigger than me because if it was up to me, I'd be like everybody else selling these high-end, very expensive coffees. You know, don't get me wrong. I do have them, very limited supply. But the thing about it is, is that in order to get people excited and happy, at least to me, you have to meet them where they are. You have to give them something that they're more so familiar with, but also giving them a reason to want to try something else later.

[00:10:10] So I think that's where I was at. It's bigger than me because it's about that person. It's about people connecting with coffee on whatever way that they want to. Think about it. Sometimes I have like an Ethiopian coffee. I just roasted just now. This coffee is, you can roast it so many different ways, but this time I went ahead and roasted like a dark roast. So if I gave that coffee out to somebody, they probably wouldn't like it because they'll taste a lot of bitterness, a lot of acidity on the coffee. Very off-putting, very offensive to people. They may think it's cool for that time. They probably only drink it after lunch on a Wednesday. It's not gonna be used as much compared to a Brazilian coffee, something that they can finish, enjoy, and do whatever the hell they need to with it.

[00:10:55] Those are the reasons why the coffee is really bigger than me. Just a roaster, right? I just wanna give people the chance, the opportunity to really enjoy coffee. That's where I'm at with a lot of this stuff. It's more than just me just trying to sell something to somebody or give somebody an experience to wear. It's really cool, especially those far out there coffees from time to time, but you're trying to make somebody be more familiar with something that they're more accustomed to, but they can see the elevation in that particular coffee.

[00:11:44] There's light acidity on it right now, but then it just dies down and mellows out like a typical Brazilian coffee. What is a coffee? What this coffee has taught me about simplicity and consistency.

[00:11:59] I would have to say this, which is pretty cool about Brazilian coffees, is that at least on my side of it, it's very easy to roast. You don't have to go fast with the roast. You can take your time with the roast, or you can go fast if you want to. I think it's kind of like a delicate coffee to an extent, because you can actually burn it up quite a bit. But let's just talk about the brewing aspect of what I mean by simplicity and consistency. It's easy to brew.

[00:12:31] You can do it as a light roast. You can brew it as one to 15, one to 20, whatever. It doesn't really matter. It holds up no matter what. And a lot of times, you're gonna get that consistency because of truly what it is. The spectrum of a Brazilian coffee to me is, how can I explain this? It's not that wide, meaning that now that the coffee has mellowed out, it is more so what it tastes. And this coffee is extremely fresh. I actually just roasted this about two hours ago. So imagine if it had more time for it to mellow out naturally.

[00:13:13] So from hot to cold, that coffee more so tastes the same. Same thing with the brewing. You can probably try to change whatever variables that you're trying to do, but the coffee is gonna taste more so the same no matter what. So you can't really, like for better work, mess it up.

[00:13:32] So it's so welcoming. It's one of those things a lot of times when you're dealing with difficult coffees to where if you can actually conquer it or try to find the things that you wanna do in it. And sometimes it's frustrating because you can't really get to the point of like, damn, I didn't like get this coffee. It didn't agree to my palate. Brazilians totally on the opposite spectrum. For the most part, you brew it up any way, anytime, whichever way you want to. It just works.

[00:14:07] Yeah, you can dial it in from time to time, but at the end of the day, it just works. It's spectacular. It does the things that it needs to and all that stuff. So that's what I believe is the cool thing about Brazilian coffees or coffees like that to where their degree of flavor isn't as wide. So you can't really mess it up. No matter if you're doing a pour over, using a Mr. Coffee, using an espresso, it tends well to a lot of things. And I think that's what people really care about.

[00:14:43] You can even get some acidity on it, some lemony type of acidity, but it's not offensive. Like this one is there, it's pronounced, but it's not like crazy in your face. So to wrap this up, we got one more question, one more talking point. How it's changed the way I brew, roast, and think about coffee. I think I've talked about the brewing aspect, the roasting aspect. I've tried so many different ways. You really can't really mess it up, but think about coffee. I think it's the base. I think it's the foundation. I think it's the thing that people want more than anything. You can go ahead and get the funky, crazy, exciting coffees out there. You can do that. That's not a problem.

[00:15:35] But the thing about Brazilian coffee, at least to me, is that it is exactly what people want in coffee, 90% of the time. And it's very important to me, and I'm sure to a lot of people, is because at the end of the day, that's really what we're trying to get people to enjoy. We're just trying to get them to see what coffee can actually be. It's pretty cool though, that you can drink this with creamer, with milk, whatever. And let's just say one day you don't even have the creamer, and out of pinch, you're just drinking this black.

[00:16:14] And you can. And it doesn't offend you. It actually gives you a sense of more curiosity. It's like the gateway drug to specialty coffee beyond what you're tasting currently. If it can taste this good, be this basic, not a this, but this basic, what other things are out there for me to taste in coffee? I think that's really the biggest takeaway as I talk about Brazilian coffee. That's why I keep coming back to it, because at the end of the day, we gotta have it in our house. It's something about it that just speaks to us, just talks to us.

[00:17:00] We don't have, like if we have coffee in a house, we know that we have the Brazilian coffee in our house. We know that we're not gonna be pushed, or taught it in a different way, just because we know that, at least we have that coffee ready to rock and roll. It centers us, at least me, in what I've seen from other people. So it's extremely important in the whole staple of the things that we do, because it's really the gateway drug. So if we can present people, give people a reason why a Brazilian type of coffee is good.

[00:17:36] I think that's where the big exploration that people will get from drinking coffee. So yeah, it's kinda interesting, right? I think so. I think it's pretty cool. And yeah, it's interesting that I don't wanna drink it. I don't care for it. I don't like it black as I'm drinking it black, explaining to you critically of what I like, what I don't like about it. But I still have to come back to it, because if I lose that sense of curiosity, going into the far outreaches of what coffee is, then I lose the real essence of what people care about, if that makes any sense.

[00:18:15] So this is a long one. This is me, Okey at Everyday Beans signing out. And let me know what you think about this. If you wanna hear more, go ahead and subscribe. If you made it this far, I probably should have said it in the beginning, but go to my website, everydaybeans.com. We're on Amazon and all that good stuff. And yeah, this is me. I'm just talking about coffee. I love coffee. I hope you love coffee. And if you have any comments, just let me know. I'm here for you. I'm ready to answer any question.

[00:18:45] This is Okey at Everyday Beans signing off. Talk to you later. Bye.