Let’s drink coffee our way, the Brazilian way

You can’t imagine Brazil without soccer, soap operas, the famous carnival in Rio de Janeiro, and coffee! What this invigorating drink means to Brazilians, how they make it and what they prefer for breakfast?

Features of Brazilian coffee

Soraya Guedes Rochev was born in Salvador, in the south of Brazil. Has been living in New York for more than 10 years and works as a teacher

the Portuguese language in one of the best universities in the country. We met with Soraya to talk about coffee, about coffee drinking habits and subtleties, about everything connected to coffee.

– What is the peculiarity of Brazilian coffee??

– We Brazilians think that any Brazilian coffee is just good coffee. We are very fond of tropical foods in general. After all, as we know, coffee was first brought to Brazil by Francisco de Melo Paletta, and he brought it from Africa.

– Soraya, could you tell us please how they make coffee in Brazil??

– Put water on the stove. And when it boils, put one, two or three spoons of coffee and wait for the water to rise.

– And foam?

– Yes. ♪ As soon as it’s frothy, take the coffee off the stove ♪. Then we filter it. We have special filters that Brazilians make out of cloth. How to make such a filter at home is very simple: take a cotton handkerchief or any cotton cloth, twist it into a funnel and in the middle attach a metal wire and fix it in the shape of a ring. Hold it by the top edge and filter the coffee. There are still people in Brazil – people like my mother, for example, and relatives – who don’t buy special machines, devices for brewing coffee and use this home method. They say it tastes better.

– What do you usually drink coffee with in Brazil for breakfast??

– We usually drink coffee with or without milk. And we have this habit, for example, to drink coffee in the morning and eat earthy bananas, which are these huge sweet bananas, usually we roast or boil them. With coffee we may also eat sweet green yams yams are sweet potatoes, the floury tubers of which are eaten raw. – Prim. Auth. , we make couscous.

– Are there any special traditions in drinking a coffee beverage, let’s say, as a guest, in public places??

– Brazilians love to talk. We drink coffee everywhere. If people in America come to visit, the hostess must prepare something for the meeting. And in Brazil, in the Northeast for example, you can come at any time, but that doesn’t mean you or you have to be treated. With a cup of coffee you can sit all day and just talk. If you go to the bank or somewhere else, they always offer you coffee.

Coffee is the head

The main supplier of coffee on the world market is Brazil, where one fifth of all cultivated lands is devoted to coffee plantations. No other state can compete with it in the quantity of coffee produced. Brazilian coffee is of high quality.

The coffee harvest in Brazil takes place in the dry season, from April to September. All the fruit comes off the tree at once. After washing, the fruits are spread out in a thin layer to dry in the sun for two to three weeks. They are stirred several times a day with a rake and sheltered from dampness at night. During the drying process, fermentation of the grain takes place, after which the dried fruits are loaded into a special machine to remove all the outer shells.

Love as in the TV series

The emergence of coffee plantations in Brazil was preceded by a very romantic story. Coffee was cultivated in their colonies by the French, who mercilessly executed anyone who tried to take out a single bean.

In 1727 a territorial dispute arose between the Netherlands and French Guiana. Brazil was entrusted to settle the conflict, Lieutenant Colonel Francisco de Melo Paletta acted as a mediator.

Not only did he excel in the affairs of state, but he also had a good leisure time: it is said that the wife of the governor of French Guiana was completely captivated by him. Before the dodgy lieutenant colonel left, the governor’s wife publicly presented him with a lavish bouquet at a banquet honoring Brazilian guests. Among the flowers were saplings of coffee trees… After bringing the precious saplings to Brazil, Francisco de Melo Paletta retired and began to breed coffee trees. Plantations in Brazil have been quite modest for a long time. In the 18th century the country’s economy was based mainly on sugar, which was exported to Europe.

The variety dictates the taste

Experts believe that the number of different varieties of coffee on the globe exceeds a thousand. In addition to the botanical and commercial classifications, there is a third, more common, geographic one. Coffee is often called by the name of the place where it is grown, or by the port of exportation. But this does not say much, as the individual batches of coffee, even from one province, can vary considerably. The same coffee can be roasted and ground differently. Different sorts of coffee are made into blends. For example, beans of Robusta a coffee variety with a pungent, bitter taste and a lot of caffeine give coffee a beautiful color and strength, while beans of Arabica give it a strong aroma and a pleasant, delicate taste. Beans of other sorts can be added to make the bouquet to get the desired flavor shade. The best robusta beans are grown in Madagascar and Guinea.

Remember: bourbon santos

The development of coffee production in Brazil has increased the demand for coffee in the world. The climate and soil of the country were also particularly suitable for the cultivation of coffee trees. By 1850 Brazil was already producing half of the world’s coffee beans. Even today, Brazil is firmly in the lead in coffee exports.

Coffee in Brazil grows in 17 out of 21 states, but 98% of the coffee beans come from only 4 states, half of which are from Paraná and a third from São Paulo.

To say “Brazilian coffee” is almost nothing. Due to the diversity of growing conditions in Brazil, there are many types of coffee. But about 50% of all Brazilian coffee is marketed under the common name santos, from the port of Santos, from where it is exported all over the world. The best variety is bourbon santos. It is made by expert blending. Santos is imported to us from Brazil, mostly in blends or separately.

Brazil also produces Minas and Parana varieties named after the two states of the country . There are other types of Brazilian coffee that are also very popular. For example, the rio variety has a coarse spice and a medicinal odor because of the iodine in the soil.

Black Gold

In the middle of World War II, coffee prices skyrocketed. One could certainly expect an increase in the demand for coffee after the war. Under the direction of the Brazilian Coffee Institute, farmers cleared and restored plantations. Today in the central square in Sao Paulo there is an original monument, cast in bronze: a coffee tree – a symbol of the country’s wealth.

The gathering and preparing of the coffee beans for later consumption is a long and laborious process. According to Soraya, most Brazilians prefer to buy coffee rather than grow their own.

Caffeine and digestion

Recall that coffee contains caffeine, but not in its pure form, but in a certain proportion with a large group of other organic elements. That’s why the body’s reaction to coffee is different than when taking pure caffeine. Although caffeine is considered by many medics to be an alkaloid because of its stimulating and bracing action. The stimulating effect of coffee lasts for up to three hours. It is important to note, that after the excitement, caused by coffee, the state of depression does not occur, as it usually happens with the use of alcoholic beverages.

Even in the 20s of the XIX century this substance was isolated in its pure form from the coffee extract. Caffeine is in the form of colorless crystals with a bitter taste. In the late 19th century, the structural formula for caffeine was deciphered, and in 1897 it was synthesized by the German chemist G. Fischer.

In the human body, caffeine acts on the cerebral cortex and is part of many medicines.

Reacting to coffee and digestion. This is mainly due to the organic acids contained in the coffee. Their effect is to stimulate the secretion of gastric juice and within about half an hour after taking the coffee the acidity is at its highest point. However, it is not recommended for those who suffer from gastrointestinal diseases.

In general, coffee speeds up the digestive process and food is better absorbed by the body. Hence the old tradition of serving coffee for dessert.

Brazilian coffee: ground coffee is poured into a bucket, poured over with boiling water, quickly stirred and filtered into a bucket previously scalded with boiling water.