Where Does Coffee Come From?

With origins in Ethiopian folklore, coffee now comes from all over the world with the highest producers in Central or Latin America, Asia and the Pacific, and regions of Africa.

Coffee plants can be cultivated almost anywhere in the world, but it takes the right climate in order grow great-tasting coffee. National Geographic lists the top 10 coffee growing nations as:

• Brazil
• Columbia
• Indonesia
• Vietnam
• Mexico
• Ethiopia
• India
• Guatemala
• Cote d'Ivoire
• Uganda

These countries mostly fall between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, sometimes referred to as the "Bean Belt," where the temperature remains warm and the soil is well-suited for growing coffee beans.

There are two major types of coffee that are grown, which of course come from two different coffee plants: the Arabica and Robusta coffee. Each crop of Robusta plants will have a higher yield of beans whereas the Arabica beans are grown at a higher elevation and are known to be the better type of bean.

Coffee Folklore

According to folklore, coffee was discovered by Kaldi, an Ethiopian goat herder. One ordinary day, he suddenly noticed his goats moving around in a quite unusual, high-spirited manner. He also was able to observe that they were munching on some berries from a shrub. He decided to have a taste of the berries.

After snacking on them he found himself energized and was very pleased with its effects. He told his friends about it and soon, everyone in the region knew about those energy-boosting berries. The rest as they say, is history.

Despite the charm of this legend, some recent botanical studies suggest a different coffee origin. Their investigation recounts a history of coffee that began in central Ethiopia and eventually must have been brought to Yemen, which, since the 6th century, has been cultivating coffee.

Spread of Coffee

Arabian coffeehouses soon popped up and became centers of political activity. Coffee and coffeehouses soon became banned, but would still reappear every now and then. To solve this problem, coffee and coffeehouses became taxed.

During this time, even the Dutch were growing coffee beans at Malabar, India. In 1699, they took some beans to Java, Indonesia.  In just a span of a few years, the Dutch became the dominant suppliers of coffee to Europe. Today, Indonesia is the fourth largest coffee exporter in the world.

It was the Venetian traders who introduced coffee to Europe in 1615. During this time, two other beverages appeared. The first was hot chocolate, which was brought over by the Spanish. The second was tea, which was first sold in 1610.

At the beginning, coffee was mainly sold by the lemonade vendors. Coffee was initially believed to have medicinal purposes.

In 1683, the first European coffeehouse opened in Venice while the very popular Caffe Florian in Piazza San Marco opened in 1720. The first account that tells of coffee being drunk in North America dates back to 1668. Soon after, coffeehouses were put up in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other towns.

How Coffee is Made

We often forget that the drink we all love actually comes from a bean. The coffee bean starts as a red color bean. These coffee cherries are actually the fruit that grows on coffee plants. A coffee cherry will typically produce two coffee beans inside it. The fruit is discarded, which leaves the beans that are green in color.

Coffee gets its dark color through the roasting process. All coffees are not the same, however. Each coffee type is roasted differently in order to create different flavor profiles.

Coffee Consumers

North Americans are the world's largest coffee consumers. Seattle was even hailed as the spiritual home of coffee. Seattle, the wettest U.S. city, established the “café” and “latte” culture during the 1970s. This cultural phenomenon swept the entire USA and has greatly improved the overall quality of the coffee that U.S. citizens drank. Today, every street corner in the U.S. has a café or coffee cart selling a wide variety of quality coffee.