Description
Brazil has been the world's largest coffee producer for more than 150 years.
It currently accounts for about a third of world production, although in the past its market share was as high as eighty percent. Coffee was introduced to the nation from French Guiana in 1727, while it was still under Portuguese rule.
Thus, Brazil's first coffee was planted by Francisco de Melo Palheta in the Para region in the north of the country. According to the myth, Palheta travelled to French Guiana on a diplomatic mission, seduced the governor's wife there and received the seeds hidden in a bouquet from her on his departure. The coffee he planted on his return home was probably used only for domestic consumption, and remained a minor crop until it began to make its way south, moving from orchard to orchard as well as from farm to farm.
Good Brazilian coffees tend to be low in acidity, heavy in body and sweet, often with chocolate and nutty flavours.
