Where Do Coffee Beans Come From?
You can’t beat the smell of freshly brewed coffee in the morning.
Coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world but where does this magical drink come from?
Coffee, the drink, starts out very very far from the brew we see in coffee shops or in powder form in glass bottles on grocery shelves.
You may wonder how some instant coffee could taste very bitter and strong, or why some coffee roasters offer their products as beans and not pre-ground.
Coffee is very complex, with many authors and editors contributing to produce an intriguing tale for the ones who will eventually drink it and unravel its story.
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Where Does Coffee Come From Originally?
This dark brew actually starts from a shrub/tree - the coffee plant.
There is myth, originating in Ethiopia, that one day, a goatherd found his flock jumping all around a bush.
Upon checking, he saw that his goats had been picking off and eating the cherries of the shrub.
Testing for himself, he ate a cherry and discovered the stimulating effects of the fruit.
This tale may or may not be fully real, but at least it answers one of many questions: do coffee beans come from cherries?
Simply put, yes it does.
What Is A Coffee Cherry?
The cherry itself is only a part of what we drink.
The seed inside the coffee cherry is what becomes the coffee bean that is roasted, ground and brewed.
Like any crop, the coffee plant has a cultivation cycle, and a preferred climate and altitude.
Farmers wait for the perfect ripeness before harvesting the coffee cherries, because this affects the taste.
From there, the cherries are stripped of the “meat” and skin, and we see the first sign of the coffee bean--a green bean!
The processes of stripping the meat from the cherry also contribute to the final taste notes of the coffee bean.
Depending on the region, some coffee processors either dry the cherries, or hull them wet.
Nowadays many growers and coffee processors also experiment with various ways of extracting the bean.
Each way of processing infuses the beans with more flavour notes--surprising nuances like the sweetness of berries or the tanginess of grapefruit.
Where Do The Best Coffee Beans Come From?
To find the best is tricky, as preferences are very subjective.
Despite this, there are certain criteria a coffee plant requires for it to produce high-quality, flavourful beans.
One part of the bean quality equation is terroir.
Terroir includes the location, altitude, soil richness, and humidity that has helped nurture the coffee plant.
There is a known region across the globe that has perfect conditions for growing coffee--the Coffee Belt.
This region spans like a belt around the equator and contains coffee-famous countries such as Indonesia, Ethiopia, Brazil, Jamaica, to name a few.
These countries are blessed with mountains which provide high altitude, warm humidity, and rich soil.
Many great arabica coffees are grown on the slopes of volcanoes.
Where Can You Find The Best Arabica Coffee?
A sure answer is to visit any mountainous regions in Equator and you will find interesting and surprisingly flavoured coffee.
To develop these flavours, the coffee cherry must mature slowly and carefully, nurtured by the elements which are plentiful in this so-called Coffee Belt.
Going back to the story of the goatherd and his jumping goats, we can safely say that his discovery in Ethiopia quickly spread, along with coffee drinking culture.
News of this new invigorating cherry spread, and aside from eating the coffee beans, people also discovered that the beans could be roasted and then brewed.
Coffee plant was then traded, smuggled, or stolen eastward towards the Arabian peninsula, and eventually up towards Europe.
If you are asking where did the coffee plants come from originally, it is commonly agreed that it grows wild in Ethiopia and from there was spread throughout the world.
A big part of the coffee story is the human factor.
Coffee plants still have to be cared for with little to no automation.
Because of the high altitude, inclines of the farming location, or being grown under the shade of rainforests, the crop has to be manually cultivated.
Harvest is done by hand. Many methods of coffee cherry processing are still also done by hand.
For graded beans meant for the specialty market, the beans are actually inspected one by one and sorted into the appropriate grades.
This is only one good reason why specialty coffee is slightly more expensive than regular, grocery-bought, instant coffee, is also for its traceability.
Batch Coffee proudly offers coffee beans that can often be traced right down to the farm they were grown.
We understand the best way to roast the beans that we feature to honour the long journey and the many hands that our coffee has passed through.
If you are asking yourself where do the best coffee beans come from, let our subscription service guide you to discover different coffee origins so you can decide for yourself.
What Do Coffee Beans Grow On?
Coffee beans grow on a shrub or a tree and range in height.
There are many different varietals of coffee and each has a slightly different tree.
For example the geisha variety that is famed for producing some of the most expensive coffee in the world grows on small bushes around 1 metre high.
Other varieties such as Caturra can grow up to 4 metres tall.
Which Country Is Famous For Coffee Beans?
There are many countries famous for growing coffee.
Brazil is the largest producer of coffee in 2020 Brazil produced 61.6 million 60-kilogram bags (1) which is roughly a third of the overall coffee produced worldwide.
Ethiopia is often referred to as the birthplace of coffee and is home to hundreds of unique ‘heirloom’ varietals of coffee plant.
High quality coffee from Colombia was always marketed via a host of Juan Valdes coffee commercials in the US.
Vietnam is also famous for producing large quantities of robusta coffee that is used in commercial coffee brands.
What Are The 2 Types Of Coffee Beans?
The two most common types of coffee bean in the world are Arabica and Robusta.
There are other types such as Liberica and Excelca that are found in South East Asia but these account for less than 1% of the overall production.
Where Does Italian Coffee Come From?
Italy is so synonymous with coffee there are several types and roasts named Italian coffee.
Italian style roast refers to the roast profile of the coffee which is dark and full bodied.
Italian coffee that has been roasted in Italy and sold commercially throughout the world, whether as instant, ground or whole beans is generally roasted in Italy but grown throughout the world in various coffee growing countries.
What Came First Coffee Or Tea?
In the UK coffee was preferred as the beverage of choice for most people before the British East India company turned its focus to tea.
However throughout the rest of the world coffee was first consumed as a beverage either in Yemen or Ethiopia in the 15th Century. Tea dates back to around 1000 BC according to Chinese folk law when it would have been used for medicinal purposes.
