Each coffee-growing region, from Kenya to Colombia, is defined by its climate, the prevalent plant varieties, and the processing methods used—all elements that significantly affect the final flavor.
Experts mostly agree that basic attributes can be pinned to certain regions, within which there are, of course, innumerable possibilities. So, here is your absolute basic guide to which regions produce which kinds of flavors. Don’t get too attached, though: the more you taste the more you’ll realize that there are plenty of flavor surprises to be found.
Central America
As a group, Central American coffees are known for balance. Think cocoa flavors, a fruity background and a soft sweetness with varying levels of acidity. This area has been producing commercial coffee crops for a while, and reputations for quality vary from country to country.
Guatemala:
Guatemala is renowned for specialty coffee, consistently supplying top-notch beans with a wide range of flavors. Really good Guatemalan coffees have a moderate body and are bright, clean and powerful, with a taste range that includes chocolaty, spicy and smoky as well as delicate, floral and buttery.
Mexico:
Mexican coffee is known for being light-bodied and mild; it’s naturally sweet, so good for darker espresso roasts. There isn’t a particularly strong focus on specialty coffee in Mexico yet, so well-processed beans aren’t always easy to find.
Panama:
Somewhat ignored for a while, these days Panamanian coffee has a bit of a “next big thing” aura around it, with a lot of attention being given to the intensely floral “Geisha” variety of coffee bean produced there. Specialty coffee farms in Panama are known for having some of the more fair labor laws and wage standards in the region, producing bright coffees with strong fruit and floral notes. these days PanamaNIAN coffee has a bit of a “next big thing” aura around it.
South America
Long synonymous with the coffee industry, particularly the big-hitting Brazil, coffees from South America have been more generally described as having a clean mouthfeel and lively acidity, and for being slightly sweet. Though long the home of massive commercial coffee crops, there are plenty of smaller farms in South America shifting the focus to specialty.
Bolivia:
Bolivia is producing some wonderful specialty coffee that is often delicate, bright and sweet with subtle fruit flavors. They can also develop more nutty and chocolaty roast flavors.
Brazil:
Brazil is the biggest coffee-producing nation in the world, with huge commercial crops as well as some excellent, quality single origins. Top Brazilian beans are known for their power, subtle flavor variations and balance, so they’re great for blending and produce a mild, clear, lowacid coffee, with possible milk chocolate, cherry and sassafras flavors.
Colombia:
The Colombian coffee industry has been particularly well run for a long time, with a strong federation of growers (and excellent marketing). Because of this, their coffee is particularly consistent in quality and is, for the most part, very clean tasting, balanced and big-bodied, with a range of flavors that at its finest can be cane-sugar sweet with tropical fruit notes.
Peru:
Grown at high altitudes, Peru’s best coffees are notably bright. They’re clean and mostly wet-processed, acidic with touches of fruit or floral. These coffees are often lively and rounded, rather than overpowering. Though recently, some specialty coffee suppliers have struggled to find highquality beans in Peru
Africa and the Arabian Peninsula
This region is coffee’s natural homeland, and thought to have some of the most exciting specialty coffees around. These distinctive beans have sweet flavors ranging from mellow and wine-like to zesty and citrusy.
Ethiopia:
Ethiopia, the home of Coffea arabica, has a special place in the coffee industry. Wet-processed Ethiopian beans tend towards clean, floral flavors, while the dry-processed beans are thicker and have a distinctively rich and complex flavor profile. Ethiopian beans are a particular favorite of many coffee-lovers, and knowing that some of this coffee comes from the oldest coffea trees in the world only adds to this country’s cred.
Kenya:
Kenyan coffee, known for its acidity, has an excellent reputation for both its industry practices and quality. At its best it produces a complex coffee that is particularly fruity, with berry tones, a sharp, full body and rich fragrance. Also, some spice, sweetness and wine-like qualities are possible.
Rwanda:
Rwanda has long been a large producer of coffee, but these days it’s an interesting case of a specialty coffee industry booming in the wake of huge (and tragic) cultural and industrial shifts. The top specialty coffee in Rwanda is more balanced and less fruity than Kenyan but still has an acidic kick, with floral characteristics and sometimes a tea-like finish.
Yemen:
If Ethiopia is the home of the coffee plant, Yemen is the home of the coffee industry. This is the country that brought coffee to the rest of the world, and its current crops are known to have a distinctly rustic, musklike sweetness. Unfortunately there isn’t an enormous amount of care taken in the coffee picking and processing here, so it can be a challenge to find a high-quality cup
Islands
In the coffee world, the “island” category generally includes Hawaii and the Caribbean. Beans from this area are rich and full-bodied, with nutty and earthy flavors, smooth in acidity with a slightly dry finish. These coffees are often preceded by their reputation as being the best in flavor and quality, however as the coffee-tasting culture shifts towards more experimentation, good Hawaiian and Jamaican beans become just two of a wide range of interesting flavors on offer, rather than crowning the top of the list.
Hawaii:
Jamaica:
You may have heard Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee pitched as the world’s best, above even Hawaiian Kona. Unfortunately, what some coffee producers sell as “Jamaican Blue Mountain” isn’t quite that; rather, trading on the trend, it might be just a small amount of Blue Mountain blended with cheaper beans. Jamaican beans are mild and full-bodied, complex but balanced. Considered glorious by some and flat by others, you’ll need to taste some and decide for yourself whether true Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee deserves its reputation—and hefty price tag
Asia and Australia
As always, it’s hard to generalize about these completely different nations, but Asian coffees—from India to Indonesia—have a reputation for being dense, exotic and a little earthy.
India:
India’s first coffee crop came from beans smuggled out of Yemen in the late seventeenth century, and it now exports many wet- and dry processed coffees with a wide variety of flavors. One interesting variety is India’s “monsooned” coffee: the beans are stored in a warehouse open to the monsoonal winds, which causes the beans to double in size and develop a golden color. Known to have a strikingly musty, smoky, low-acid flavor, it’s worth trying if you’re after something quite different.
Indonesia:
These beans are known to be dark, rich and savory—almost meaty. They’re full-bodied with a mild acidity, but with long-standing, diverse growing styles used on different islands, flavors can range from fruity, earthy and musty to bright and floral. Here, there is also focus on semi-dried coffee, which makes for a uniquely clean, balanced cup.
East Timor:
Timorese coffees have a lot of feel-good benefits to them, since most of the sales directly benefit the organic farmers’ co-ops, rather than exporters. Beans are known to be rich and deep, often featuring notes of leather and tobacco.
Australia:
Australian coffee is generally quite mild, has a medium to low acidity and is sweet and chocolaty. Their beans aren’t really big in the specialty market right now and are sometimes accused of having a lack of complexity.
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