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The Coffee Atlas
Brazil Matas de Minas
Brazil Matas de Minas, the country's second-largest coffee region and a rising specialty name, with sourced altitude, flavor, and cupping data.
Flavor profile
avg. of 1 published reviewScale: 1-10, Coffee Review / SCA-classic-form convention. Based on 1 of 2 known independently published, dated Coffee Review scores of a Matas de Minas lot, averaged here: Temple Coffee and Tea's blend of three named farms (Sitio do Bone, Santo Antonio, Sitio Castello), reviewed April 2017, overall score 90. A second, older score also exists, La Mill Coffee's Organic Brazil Serra Do Bone, reviewed June 2008, overall 91, but it is excluded here: Coffee Review scored it on the espresso form (Aroma, Body, Flavor, Aftertaste, and With Milk in place of Acidity), which is not directly poolable with the filter-cupping form (including Acidity) used for the 2017 review above. This is a thinner base than the two-lot averages used elsewhere in this Atlas, so treat these numbers as one credible data point rather than a settled regional average. It is also a wet-processed (washed) lot, while most Matas de Minas coffee today ships natural or pulped-natural (see Sources & data): the flavor profile below reflects that specific washed blend, not the region's natural-process majority.
What it tastes like
Matas de Minas, the “forests of Minas,” is Brazil’s second-largest coffee region after Sul de Minas, spread across 64 municipalities and roughly 275,000 hectares on the eastern edge of Minas Gerais state, where the land still borders remnants of the Atlantic Forest. About 36,000 growers farm here, and 80% of them work less than 20 hectares by hand: the mountainous, irregular terrain resists the mechanization that flatter regions like Cerrado rely on, so Matas de Minas has stayed a smallholder, artisanal region even as its neighbors industrialized.
That terrain also gives the region real altitude range, from around 600 m in the warmer lowlands up to roughly 1,300 m regionwide, and as high as 1,400 m in specialty micro-regions like Araponga, where a wave of washed and controlled-fermentation experimentation since 2014 has pushed several farms toward Cup of Excellence recognition. The long harvest calendar follows that elevation gradient too: picking starts in May in the lower, warmer zones and runs through the higher ground into October.
The one Coffee Review score behind this entry’s flavor profile, a wet-processed blend from three named farms reviewed by Temple Coffee and Tea in 2017, lands squarely in the region’s classic register: sweet toffee and baker’s-chocolate sweetness, a nutty pecan note, a resinous fresh-cut-fir edge, and an unusual rosemary-flower top note, over mild acidity and a satiny, medium-to-full body. That washed lot is the exception rather than the rule, though. Most Matas de Minas coffee still ships natural or pulped-natural, dried on patios during the same long dry season that defines the harvest window, which is why the everyday cup here reads rounder and more chocolate-forward than this one review alone suggests.
How to brew it
Method fit for this origin · editorial guidance from roaster convention
Mild acidity and a sweet, nut-and-chocolate cup are exactly the profile roasters reach for in Brazilian espresso shots and blends.
The satiny, medium-to-full body carries well through full immersion without losing the toffee and cocoa sweetness.
Drinkable and clean, but the understated florals and mild acidity read less distinctly through a filter than through a body-forward method.
⚠ Fit tiers are editorial guidance drawn from roaster convention; no industry standard scores brew fit, so we show tiers, never invented numbers. Reflects brew guidance commonly published by specialty roasters for mild-acid, sweet, chocolate-and-nut-toned Brazilian lots, not an SCA-defined standard.
Altitude & region
Growing elevation, meters above sea level · this entry vs comparison bands
Matas de Minas's range is sourced directly from Atlantica Coffee's regional profile, corroborated by the region's own producer association and by three separate trader/roaster lot pages describing its higher specialty micro-regions. Brazil Sul de Minas, Brazil Cerrado, and Kenya AA are shown for scale using the same typical origin altitude figures already published elsewhere in this Atlas, not lot-specific measurements. Matas de Minas overlaps Sul de Minas and Cerrado at the low end and reaches into Kenya AA territory only in its highest specialty pockets, which is why the region ships everyday commodity-grade lots and increasingly, competition-grade micro-lots side by side.
Caffeine content
Caffeine by dry weight · each gold dot = 0.1%
Caffeine content tracks species, not origin, altitude, or processing: roughly 1.2% for Arabica versus roughly 2.2% for Robusta, close to double (see Sources & data). This entry is 100% Arabica; no credible per-origin caffeine figure exists at a category level, so the comparison above is by species only, not a measurement of this specific lot.
Where to buy it
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Micro-lot Red Catuai from grower Roseangela Moura Alves; lemonade, black tea, and orange notes in a medium-light roast.
View lot→Pulped-natural Matas de Minas lot; amaretto and mellow fruit flavors with a mild, winey acidity.
View lot→Pulped-natural Matas de Minas lot roasted for drip and espresso; dark chocolate, brown sugar, hazelnut, and raisin.
View lot→Selection is wide and turns over fast: check roast dates, 100%-origin labeling, and seller reviews before buying.
View lot→Sources & data
- Atlantica Coffee: Matas de Minas, tradition, family agriculture and sustainabilityAltitude range (600-1,300 m), 64 municipalities, 275,000 hectares, 36,000 growers, 80% under 20 hectares, 75,000 direct / 156,000 indirect jobs
- Regiao das Matas de Minas (official producer association)Corroborates altitude starting at 600 m, 64 municipalities, 275,000 hectares, 36,000 growers, sweet/citric/caramel/chocolate flavor description
- Covoya Coffee: Brazil Matas de Minas regional lotAltitude corroboration (800-1,400 m), May-to-September harvest calendar mechanism (lower altitude first, higher altitude last), natural/dry processing, 24% of Minas Gerais production
- Trabocca: Araponga Villages, Matas de MinasAraponga micro-region altitude (950-1,400 m), July-October harvest, Red/Yellow Catuai and Catucai varieties, natural and pulped-natural processing, Cup of Excellence 2017 recognition
- Ozone Coffee NZ: Brazil Matas de Minas2023 lot altitude (900-1,400 m), June-October harvest window, Yellow/Red Catuai, Yellow/Red Catucai, Yellow Bourbon, and Caturra varieties, natural processing
- Perfect Daily Grind: A Concise Guide to Brazil's Major Coffee-Producing RegionsCatuai and Mundo Novo as dominant varieties, 80% of farms under 20 hectares, sweet/citric/caramel/chocolate flavor description
- Coffee Review: Brazil Matas de Minas, Temple Coffee and TeaCupping scores (the single lot averaged for this entry), reviewed April 2017, wet-processed blend of three named farms
- Coffee Review: Organic Brazil Serra Do Bone, La Mill CoffeeSecond, older Matas de Minas score (reviewed June 2008, overall 91) disclosed but excluded from the average above because it was scored on Coffee Review's espresso form (With Milk in place of Acidity), not poolable with the filter-cupping form used for the averaged review
- Coffee Review: scoring methodology1-10 attribute scale definition
- Crozier et al.: Espresso coffees, caffeine and chlorogenic acid intake (Food & Function, 2012)Peer-reviewed (Univ. of Glasgow): states robusta coffee beans contain almost twice as much caffeine as arabica, by species (no percentage figures given in this paper)
- Development of a fast and simple method to identify pure Arabica coffee and blended coffee by Infrared Spectroscopy (J. Food Sci. Technol., 2021, PMC8292507)Peer-reviewed, open-access: "Arabica beans usually presents 1.0 to 1.5% w.w-1 of caffeine and Robusta beans presents 2.0 to 2.5% w.w-1" (quoted verbatim, source's own wording), source for this entry's 1.2% Arabica / 2.2% Robusta figures, both within the stated ranges