Coffee Varities Around the World

Coffee comes from all around the world and is therefore a truly international trade. It is the world's second largest traded commodity next to oil. Coffee is cultivated between a 'belt' roughly bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn (coffee regions are coloured red in the map). Around two-thirds of it comes from the Americas but there are many large and small producers in countries such as Arabia, India, Africa, West Indies, Java and Sumatra. The coffee from each different area of the world has its own unique taste.

Coffee trees produce their best beans when grown at high altitudes in a tropical climate where there is rich soil. Such conditions are found around the world in locations along the Equatorial zone, between latitudes 25 degrees North and 30 degrees South.

Besides location, other factors affect the quality and flavor of coffee. These include the variety of the plant, the chemistry of the soil in which it is grown, the weather, particularly the amount of rainfall and sunshine, and the precise altitude at which the coffee grows. Such variables -- combined with the way the cherries are processed after being picked -- contribute to the distinctions between coffees from countries, growing regions and plantations worldwide. The combination of factors is so complex, that even from a single plantation one finds variation in quality and taste.

The best varieties of coffee had, for a long time, been those which came from Arabia, known as moka or Yemen coffee, as well as coffee from the Bourbon (or Réunion) Island and Martinique. The names have been preserved in the trade to distinguish three types of coffee, although the designation in no way implies origin.

The three types are:

• Moka - small, irregular grains, yellowing in color and convex on both sides.
• Bourbon - medium sized grains, yellowing and oblong.
• Martinique - the biggest grains, rounded at the ends, greenish in color.

Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries around the world. Here are some of them.

• Latin America and the Carribean
• Africa and African Peninsula
• Hawaii, Sulawasi and Sumatra
• Java, New Guinea and Asia