Brazilian Breakfast

All you need to know about Brazilian Breakfast essentials are here in one post. We’ve got plenty of ideas to serve a classic Brazilian Breakfast at home, including recipes, notes and some variations by region.

Traditional Brazilian Breakfast

Oi, Gente!! Or maybe, I should say Bom Dia (good morning) this time!!

While breakfast is the most important meal of the day in a lot of cultures, the real most important meal of the day for Brazilians is lunch.

That said, we do take breaking our fast seriously and tend to start our day in a multitude of delicious ways.

Typically, an everyday café da manhã (breakfast) tends to be a lighter lanche (snack), made with simple things like tapioca, bread and butter, cold meats and cheeses, fruits, granola, juices and of course, coffee!

By contrast, the Café Colonial (colonial breakfast), a classic southern Brazil tradition that exists all over the country in hotels, restaurants and padarias (bakeries) is a full family-style meal. The Café Colonial is said to have come from when colonial masters would have a full banquet-type of meal for breakfast, loaded with breads, cakes, juices and more. Whatever was left from the morning meal would be served in the afternoon to house workers.

This makes this style of meal go far beyond the breakfast and brunch hours. It’s a common buffet-style meal to have anytime from morning until well into the afternoon as a café da tarde (afternoon coffee) option, usually for special occasions and holidays.

Of course, there are also variations in Brazilian breakfast foods based on class and region, too.

For example, cereals can be expensive and aren’t super common on the everyday Brazilian table, though they do exist. Granolas and yogurt with fruit are more of a thing.

Typical Brazilian Breakfast Foods

• Pão Frances, French Bread — é o pão nosso de cada dia, our everyday bread for the most part. It is the preferred bread to make pão na chapa (grilled bread) and queijo quente (grilled cheese.) But of course, you’ll find other breads, too, like sliced sandwich bread, whole wheat toast, etc.
• Butter and jams — a way to preserve the plethora of tropical fruits we have, these jams are a classic breakfast staple, whether they’re store-bought or homemade.
• Pão doce (sweet breads and rolls) — these can go from simple sweet rolls to very sticky breads, including ones deliciously glazed with vanilla creams, sugars, etc.
• Frios — includes ham, cheeses and other cold cuts like mortadella and turkey breast
• Eggs — these are typically prepared to people’s personal preferences, like scrambled, etc.
• Fresh Fruit — with Brazil being a tropical country, it has a vast variety of fresh fruits available year-round. While you can find any fruit at the breakfast table, bananas and papayas are the most classic options.
• Pão de queijo — this Brazilian cheese bread recipe is good for any time of day. It’s naturally gluten free, too!
• Tapioca — these classic Brazilian little “flat-breads” can be served simply with just some butter or jam, dulce de leche, or can be grilled with cheeses and more!!
• Cakes — typically simple coffee cakes, fruit cakes, etc.
• Açaí Bowls — Brazil’s most popular fruit bowl, can be served a million and one ways, from simply topped with fruits like bananas and granola to other things like leite ninho (powdered milk).

Brazilian breakfast beverages:

We have a variety of breakfast beverages to enjoy in the mornings, too!

Here are some of our favorites:

• Café (coffee) — Brazil’s café culture runs deep! We drink coffee throughout the day and our cafézinho (little coffee) of the morning is a national passion. Black coffee, Café preto, is the coffee of choice in Brazilian coffee culture, and is served with sugar for those who like it (and usually sweet for most non-Brazilian tastes) or turned into a café com leite when you add milk.
• Fresh fruit juices and smoothies — thanks to the abundance of fresh fruits, turning them into juice is quite normal. Think freshly squeezed orange juice, passion fruit juice, papaya smoothies, and anything you can blend!
• Fresh Coconut Water – a favorite in areas where coconut is abundant, which is almost everywhere is a popular choice in hot days.
• Nescau or chocolate milk for kids

Breakfast Variations by Region:

Brazil is a huge country full of local ingredients and external influences that shape what we eat across all different regions.

Check out some regional breakfast highlights:

• Southeast — my beloved home region! I grew up with pão na chapa (grilled bread), pão de queijo (Brazilian cheese bread), cheeses, cold cuts, mate Brazilian iced tea and fresh fruit juices for breakfast.
• Center-west — there is a strong indigenous and Paraguayan influence here. Chipa (Paraguayan cheese bread) and caldo de cana (sugar cane juice) are popular options. Also common in center-west is quebra-torto, a classic breakfast for Pantaneiros, the Pantanal region field workers. This is a heavy rice and jerky dish served with eggs, which guarantees enough energy for people to work the fields all day in the Pantanal region.
• Northeast — there is indigenous, African and Portuguese influence in this region. People who live in Northeastern Brazil eat things like corn couscous, tapioca, queijo coalho, carne seca or carne de sol (Brazilian jerkys), bolo do rolo, which is a thin cake rolled in guava paste. My brother lived in this region for years, so I spent a lot of time in there, as well. During my time there, local fruit juices like Cajá and Cajú were my favorites!
• North — there is a strong indigenous influence here. Breakfast is full of local delicacies like açai in various forms, pupunha fruit, boiled yuca and yuca cakes, baked banana and lots of coconut.
• South — this region has a German and Italian influence. Cold meats like salamis, smoked meats and sausages, fresh fruit jams and compotas (fruit preserves) with cheeses are popular breakfast items. Cakes like cuca, and fruit-forward cakes with a sweet, crunchy streusel-style topping are also common. Pinhão, which are local pine nuts, make their appearance in the winter, and mate and chimarrão are also the local drinks southern Brazilians can’t live without.

Traditional Brazilian breakfast recipes:

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Brazilians eat eggs for breakfast? Yes!

What do kids eat for breakfast in Brazil? Popular breakfast items for kids include chocolate milk, bread/toast and butter, cheese. In some regions, children will eat tapioca, couscous, fresh fruit and more.

Are there any Brazilian holiday breakfast traditions? Not really.