Coffees from Around the World

Mexican Chiapas

A lively energy is retained, even as it cools.  It evokes a roasted-sage woodiness.  The aroma settles upon brewing into lightly toasted, near-buttery sensations.  The beans handle the medium roast exceptionally well and carry a windswept earthiness that dominates the brew, smoothly coupled with a lively acidity and energetic finish.

Most of Mexico's coffee comes from the southern part of the country - Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas.  Cultivation of coffee in the Chiapas began only at the end of the 18th century, when coffee plants were brought from the Antilles.  Even then, it wasn't until the late 20th century that the specialty coffee boom gave indigenous people in Mexico's tropical, southernmost state a chance to progress beyond mere survival and begin producing specialty-grade coffee for the export market.

Insert from BeeGood Trading Co.: While most of Mexico's coffee comes from Southernmost region of Chiapas, coffees from Coatepec are very different.   Mexican Coatepec from a mountainous region near the city of that name, have an excellent reputation.  Coatepec coffee is produced by small Mexican farmers who practice the traditional organic farming.

Kona Extra Fancy

Kona Extra Fancy depth would compement a dark-chocolate, flourless cake.  The arroma suggests darkly sweet berries and chestnuts, with hints of fresh tobacco.  The brew is complex, blooming with hibiscus and sweet berry undertones while easily carrying an inviting, buttered-nut sensation.

Hawaii is the only U.S. state situated within the tropics, that belt of our planet south of the Tropic of Cancer and north of the Tropic of Capricorn.  Depending on elevation and climate, coffee can thrive in the tropics, and it does so beautifully on the western slopes of Hawaii's Big Island, on the Greenwell Farm.  To ensure quality, the Kona Coffee Council certifies 100 percent Kona, distinguishing it from blends containing as little as 10 percent Kona beans. 

Guatemala San Sebastian

A benchmark dark-roasted experience, a celebration coffee.  This coffee has a deep baker's chocolate aroma that blooms and sweetens nicely when touched by water.  Its complexity reveals itself while the coffee brews.  There is a creamy, almost buttery-smooth mouthfeel, with an impressive and lengthy finish.

Guatemala's Antiqua coffee-growing region is narrow highland belt about 5,000 feet up, on the Pacific side of the country.  Guatemala San Sebastian is made from single-origin, heirloom Bourbon beans from Finca (farm) San Sebastian, in volcanic highlands surrounding Antiqua.  Heriloom beans, of course, come from some of the oldest cultivated coffees, and the Bourbon variety is named after the island of Bourbon (now Re'union), where it was initially cultivated by the French in the early 18th century.

Jamaican Blue Mountain

Jamaican Blue Mountain is a full, round and smooth coffee you want to keep drinking.  This is a solid, reliable coffee that's not overly complex.  The aroma is bold, with smokelike tones that quiet down into a silky, inviting experience after brewing.  This is a nonthreatening coffee that's easy to like and makes for a perfect after-dinner selection.

Jamaica's Blue Mountains rise from the island's eastern coast and crest at 7,400 feet.  On these misty slopes nestle many small, family-owned farms, each producing a small quantity of this prized, mild coffee.  The result is one of the planet's most sought-after coffees and some of the world's most expensive beans.  Export is coordinated byt he Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica.

Honduras La Tortuga

A lively, bright coffee you could drink all day.  This aroma invites us to spend time exploring the nuanced sensations emanating fromt he cup.  This coffee sparkles with lively acidity.  It's fresh, light and springy, deliverying sweet sensations reminiscent of dried berries, as wel as the inviting, toasted-grain impression of hot air-popped popcorn.

La Tortuga comes from Fabio Cabellero's "La Tina" farm, located over 5,400 feet up in the mountains of western Honduras, in the Marcala region near the border of El Salvador.  Recognizing the coffee's superior quality, the Intelligentsia Coffee company contracted with the Cabellero family in 2006 to purchase La Tina's entire coffee crop annually.  This relationship reflects Intelligentsia's Direct Trade commitment, in which a true partnership exists between and individual coffee producer and roaster.

Columbian Tres Santos

Here's a coffee to kick-start your day:  It bursts onto the palate and roars to life. Nutty, blackberry and dark-cherry aromas yield to woody and caramel-likke bursts of clean flavor.  An impressive, layered and lingering finish invites you to take another sip.

Tres Santos offers on of the few opportunities to enjoy exceptional, nuanced Columbian coffees before they are blended into a homogenized product with other beans from across the country.  Columbia is perhaps best-known for Juan Valdez, the highly successful marketing icon invented in 1959.  Today's specialty coffee consumer, while recognizing that the Federacion National de Cafeteros' regulation is a promise of consisten quality, may be more likely to seek out the surprising, unique and distinctive kind of coffee experience Tres Santos delivers.

Insert from BeeGood Trading Co.
Grown beneath the shade of large tropical trees, Andeano Colombian Supremo is a popular classic with a perfect balance between acidity and richness.

Ethiopian Sidamo

These are world-calss, untamed beans.  The grind is reminiscent of the dark orange color of Mars.  It offers unbelievably complex floral and citrus aromas that summon feelings of warmth and hearth. Sipping delivers an immediate and thuderous, cabernet-like shout, hightlighted by echoing flourishes of spice nad carnation.

The small, irregular, asymmetrical beans are an Ethiopian hallmark.  This Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union coffee ( www.oromiacoffeeunion.org ), like many specialty coffees, is wet-processed (sometimes called "washed")- the coffee cherry is stripped of pulp and cleanded with fresh water.

Kenyan Grand Cru

This coffee has an amazing aromatic complexity.  The aroma reminds us of oranges and lemons, with a floral, apricot-like fruitiness.  Upon brewing, a spice and flowery energy awakens, reminiscent of sweet dried fruits and wine.  The light mouthfeel of this coffee is balanced and complemented by a curios citrus temperament.

To the southern slopes of 17,000-foot Mount Kenya cling hundreds of tiny farms, each belonging to local cooperatives that process coffee cherries and prepare beans for the weekly auctions held about 90 minles away in Nairobi.  Kenya's coffee is exclusively controlled by a mandatory auctioning system.  Some recent liberalization, however, may open new market relationships between cooperatives and roasters.

Insert from BeeGood Trading Co.
Also try Kenya AA Peaberry .  The "AA" denotes the grade of this fine Kenyan coffee that boasts a fine acidity, a full, smooth body, and an incredible black currant hallmark flavor.

Brazillian Fazenda Ambiental Frotaleza

Brazillian Fazenda Ambiental Frotaleza, s moky and strong bodied, here's a coffee for people who like their coffee bold and black. Earthy, fresh tobacco aromas morph into a smoky, malted punch when brewed.  It opens beautifully upon brewing, with dry woodiness and smoke-like hints.  Its pleasantly full, creamy taste is reminiscent of walnuts.  The brew is well complemented by its rich, baker's chocolate finish.

Three to four hours north of Sao Paulo is Fazenda (farm) Ambiental Frotaleza, a model of social, environmental and economic sustainability owned by Macros Croce and Silvia Barretto (www.fafbrazil.com).  This farm won the Specialty Coffee Association of America's 2008 sustainability Award for its diverse organic cultivation practices and for empowering local women entrepreneurs.  The fazenda's 2,000 acres contain an ecologically holistic mix of bananas, shade trees, mangos, corn, passion fruit and, of course, coffee.  Marcos and Silvia extend their invitation to visit.

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is a coffee with an unparalled citrus, spiced-honey aroma and taste.  The aroma teases the nose with allspice, cinnamon and apricot.  the taste delivers exotic sensations of dried flowers, cloves and cantaloupe.  Deceptively light in the mouth while delivering a unique fruitiness.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, which still grows wild here.  Most of the country's beans are cultivated in the southern and western highlands, home to the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union  (www.oromiacoffeeunion.org ).  This union is featured in the documentary Black Gold; Tadesse Meskela, the general manager, tirelessly works to encourage the international sale of his union's Fair Trade Certified coffee.

Sumatra

Sumatra coffee delivers an unequaled, dark and exotic spiciness.  The aroma is attention-grabbing, complex and reminiscent of freshly dug earth.  The brew has a heavy, creamy mouthfeel with darkly malted tastes suggesting deeply toasted spices and grains.  It is a dark chocolate, spice-infused experience with an unmathced, layered finish.

This is a dry-processed coffee: The cherries are pulped by hand and spread in the sun to dry, without an freshwater soaking.  Sometimes calle dthe "natuarl method", dry processing is appropriate in Sumatra (one of Indonesia's 17,508 islands), where most farmers have little land or capital to invest in wet-processing equipment.  This coffee's multi-faceted flavors and full body are characteristics commonly associated with dry processing. 

Excerpt by Theodore Erski  who shares his expertise in geography and his obsession with coffee in a course titled "The Geography of Coffee" at McHenry County College in Illinois. He's also the author of Salavandra: A Coffee Tale.