Where coffee is Grown
Today, coffee is enjoyed in every country in the world. In terms of trade, coffee is second only to oil in dollars traded.
It is grown in more than 50 countries world wide with about 30 of those countries producing more th
an 5,000,000 tons of coffee each year. For many of these countries their economic success pivots on the success of their coffee crops. Brazil is by far the largest supplier of coffee today. Columbia is second with about 2/3rds of Brazil's production.
Americans consume more than 1/3rd of the total coffee grown in the world. The green coffee beans come in to our country through New York, New Orleans and San Francisco and from there are shipped to coffee roasters around the 'States.
Hawaii is the only place in the USA where coffee is grown.
All coffee is grown between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. These names represent two imaginary "lines" that circle our globe approximately 23 degrees north and south of the equator. Here in the "middle of the world", the climate is warm and humid - necessary conditions for growing the sensitive coffee plant.
Although there are more than 60 varieties of coffee that grow in the world, only two are commercially cultivated. These are Arabica and Robusta.
Arabica coffee is a higher quality coffee. It is naturally lower in caffeine than Robusta and grows at elevations of 3000 to 6000 feet and above, where frost is rare. The Arabica tree is not as hardy as the Robusta, and a single Arabica tree typically yields only 1 - 1 ½ pounds of green coffee beans per season. Gourmet coffee companies purchase the highest grades of Arabica beans.
Robusta coffee plants are more resistant to disease and drought than the Arabica and are grown from sea level up to 2000 feet. Robusta trees yield twice as many beans per tree per season, but produce a coffee that is of lower quality. Most Robusta beans are blended with Arabica coffees and used by large commercial coffee companies for canned and instant coffees.
The concept of country often plays a similarly arbitrary and misleading role in understanding coffee. Countries tend to be large, and coffee growing areas small. Ethiopian coffee that is gathered by hand from wild trees and processed by the dry method hardly resembles coffees from the same country that have been grown on larger farms and processed by the wet method. On the other hand, some families of taste-alikes transcend national boundaries. In the big picture, for example, high-quality coffees from Latin American countries generally resemble one another, as do coffees from East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. And both tend to differ from coffees from the Malay Archipelago: Indonesia, New Guinea, and Timor.
But the notion of generally labeling coffee by country of origin is inevitable and well established. It is well to keep in mind, however, that in tasting coffee, as in thinking about history, the notion of country is no more than a convenient starting point.
Coffee grown in Africa & Middle East
Coffee grown in South East Asia and Pacific
History of Coffee | How Coffee is Made | Where Coffee is Produced
Coffee Customs from around the world