We get out of bed, head to the kitchen with weary eyes and load up the machine with freshly ground beans, or perhaps even just load them up into a coffee maker with grinder, before waiting to be energized for the day ahead. This is a morning ritual for most people, but have you ever stopped to consider just how far those beans have come so that they can give you the daily boost that you need? Whether you use instant coffee, a coffee maker or something a little bit fancier, the coffee itself will have traveled thousands of km to get to your cup, and here is where the world’s best coffee comes from.
Colombia
The weather is the key aspect to where coffee is best grown and it is for this reason that Colombia is blessed with growing some of the world’s finest coffee. The country has foothills surrounding its mountainous regions which count on a warm and wet climate, ideal for growing high quality beans. This is a country which doesn’t just grow the product but also shows great passion for it and throughout Bogota and Cali you can see some high skilled baristas working throughout the cafes.
Jamaica
Jamaica is home to Blue Mountain coffee, some of the finest that you can find. The misty mountains of Jamaica make for the perfect location for a plantation, and its rainfall and soil quality both make for the ideal environment to grow some high quality coffee beans. The process by which beans are planted, cultivated, vetted and packaged is extremely labor-intensive and it is through these techniques that the coffee has gained such a reputation for its incredible flavor.
Hawaii, USA
The USA has more of a reputation as being coffee consumers rather than producers, but in Hawaii, specifically the Kona region, some of the world’s most sought after beans can be found. The plantations are on the hillside of Hualalai and Mauna, on the Big Island of this American state. The coffee plantations have been here for many years and in the last 15 years Kona coffee has gained widespread acclaim for its richness and depth of flavor.
Vietnam
Contrary to what many people think, Vietnam is actually the second-largest coffee producer in the world and it is one of the nation’s biggest exports. What marks Vietnamese coffee is its unique flavor which has a shade of bitterness interspersed with high caffeine content and a syrupy texture. Vietnamese coffee is often blended with others to give a less concentrated flavor but the very best of the nation’s production is the 100% Vietnamese brews.
Ethiopia
Brazil may be the largest coffee producing nation on the planet but if we are looking for the best place to get the finest coffee on the planet, it is the humble coffee bean’s birthplace where we need to focus. The advantage which the bean has in Ethiopia is that the landscape has produced high quality coffee beans for centuries, often growing wild. The country produces a massive 4 million bags of coffee every year, and it is often considered to be one of the finest flavors in the world.
Where is your favorite coffee from?