Flavor Profiles of Coffee Origins
The coffee world is poppin', yet only a small portion of the world can actually grow the hallowed fruit, and with climate change on the rise these regions are shrinking. Coffee grows most prevalently in the latitudes between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. This area has ideal climate for growing beans and is often referred to as the “bean belt.” Enter 3rd wave coffee and you have an entire specialty market built on expressing and differentiating coffee beans from one origin. Single-origin can mean same country, but usually also includes farm and processing notes. It is my understanding that the specialty market has been built to highlight the uniqueness of each bean either as stand-alone or in a carefully curated blend. Truly, think of it like the modern wine industry. Flavor expression across different origins is the cornerstone of both the 3rd wave coffee and craft chocolate worlds, and each company is bringing their own spin on how the origin’s express themselves in the final products, but a base profile exists for each growing region, and I would like to focus on defining these profiles in this post, however in order to understand the modern landscape, we need a quick refresher on the history of coffee.
It is generally accepted that Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. The popular legendary tale of coffee’s introduction to the human race is worthy to mention. The story came about a young Ethiopian goat herder, called Kaldi, who noticed his goats prancing tirelessly after nibbling on the leaves and red cherries of a particular tree. Confused, and a more than a little intrigued, he tried the fruit for himself. He felt energized, motivated and alert as a consequence. Kaldi had discovered coffee, the favorite drink of the civilized world. As the word moved east and coffee reached the Arabian Peninsula, it began a journey that would spread its reputation across the globe.
Coffee cultivation and trade began on the Arabian Peninsula. By the 15th century, coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and by the 16th century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. European travelers to the Near East brought back stories of the dark, bitter, stimulating beverage. By the 17th century, coffee had made its way to Europe and was becoming popular across the continent. Coffee cultivation began to extend beyond the Middle East in the 17th century, mainly due to the Dutch, who dominated international shipping trade at that time. Travelers, traders and colonists continued to carry coffee seeds to new lands, and coffee trees were planted worldwide, which brings us to our global coffee belt! This graphic shows which countries around the world grow and trade green coffee beans.
There are 54 nations total, and each foster a unique flavor profile in the beans that grow there because of temperature, elevation, humidity, soil composition and processing techniques. Specialty roaster across the board seek to amplify best flavors and void the unsavory ones through their unique roast process, which is why I can encounter a zesty Honduran coffee from Ritual Coffee Roasters, yet Blue Bottle's Honduras roasts are teeming with rich brown sugar boldness. To me, this map represents the playing field for specialty roasters, and the sky is the limit when it comes to what flavors can be expressed by the humble coffee bean.
Higher Elevations Produce Harder Beans
Higher elevations produce hard, dense beans that are more sought-after than beans grown at lower elevations. Hard beans, as they are sometimes called, are of a higher quality than soft beans, because they have a higher concentration of sugars, which produce more desired and nuanced flavors. Several factors contribute to the increased concentration of sugars in coffee grown at high elevations:
- harsh growing conditions slow the bean’s maturation process and provide time for complex sugars to develop
- fast drainage down the mountain reduces the amount of water the coffee plants can soak up and, in turn, how fat their cherries can become
- fewer plants survive at higher elevations, reducing the likelihood that disease will spread to coffee plants
4,000 Feet and Higher is Considered High
Higher is, of course, a relative term. The highest-grown coffees in Costa Rica might come from farms that are 4,500 feet above sea level, while Ethiopia has farms that sit at 6,000 feet. Generally speaking, though, an altitude above 4,000 feet is considered high enough to produce the growing conditions that create dense, desirable beans.
Some regions and countries have technical terms that identify high-elevation lots. For instance, in Central America coffee grown above 3,000 feet is called “hard bean,” and selections grown above 4,500 feet are referred to as “strictly hard bean.” Similarly, Mexico uses “altura” for high-grown coffee, and Papua New Guinea, on the other side of the world, designates coffee from its highest farms as “Mile High.”
The terms used to describe high-grown coffee vary from region to region, though. The easiest way to see if a coffee is grown at a high elevation is to ask the roaster. Any coffee grown above 4,000 feet (~1,200 meters) will be dense.
Different Heights Produce Different Flavors
Elevation doesn’t just have a generic positive effect on a coffee’s quality. Allowing for variances from region to region and lot to lot, certain general flavors are associated with different elevations. Coffee grown:
- below 2,500 feet (762 meters) will be soft, mild, simple, and bland
- around 3,000 feet (914 meters) will be sweet and smooth
- around 4,000 feet (~1,200 meters) may have citrus, vanilla, chocolate, or nutty notes
- above 5,000 feet (~1,500 meters) might be spicy, floral, or fruity
Exceptions at Lower Elevations
There are exceptions to what’s been said thus far on high elevations and coffee. Coffee grown at lower elevations can still develop slowly, if it faces some other type of adverse growing conditions. The two most notable exceptions are Hawaiian Kona coffee (which is grown below 2,000 feet) and shade-grown coffee. Hawaii is so far north of the equator that its coffee is still excellent, even though the elevations it’s grown at aren’t high, and shade slows the maturation process by blocking out the sun.
I have recently been apart of the Coast 2 Coast Roast and Brew Pal coffee swap, which adds a new element of coffee trade, this time focused on spreading the unique origins AND roasts Specialty roasters are developing all over the country! So far, I have received a Colombian coffee from Zeal Coffee Roasters in Florida, and a Nicaraguan natural-process coffee from Rothrock Coffee Roasters in State College, PA and am overall stoked at how this exchange is forming a tighter-knit community for coffee aficionados across the country.
Anjuli's World Coffee Profile Index
Yemen- chocolate, wine, nutty
Ethiopia- pomegranate, lemon blossom, clover, honey, chocolate, banana, blackberry, apricot, cinnamon, black tea, fir, blueberry, syrup, wine, floral, mango, strawberry, cane sugar, grapefruit, plum, grape, lime
Uganda- chocolate, creamy, vanilla, hazelnut, smokey
Kenya- citrus, lemon, orange, grapefruit, floral
Congo- chocolate, nutty, tobacco, vanilla, earthy, spicy
Rwanda- apricot, orange zest, marmalade, lime, lemon, cherry, caramel, baking spice
Burundi- blackberry, chocolate, candied orange, baking spice, grassy
Tanzania- pineapple, grapefruit, herbal, pine, chocolate, liquor
Zambia- tangy, citrus, bittersweet, caramel
Zimbabwe- woody, herbal, vegetal, spicy
India- spicy, tropical fruit, tobacco, cinnamon
Myanmar- plum, floral, sweet, caramel, hazelnut, herbaceous, orange, dark chocolate
Sumatra- floral, earthy, woody, syrupy, sweet
Indonesia- floral, dark chocolate, berries
Papua New Guinea- caramel, herbal, fruity, earthy
Mexico- chocolate, vanilla, baking spice, apple,
Guatemala- chocolate, Vanilla, baking spice, peach, sugar cane, strawberry, lemon zest, cherry apricot
El Salvador- maple, brown sugar, papaya, coconut, guava, mango, pineapple, kiwi, caramel, blueberry, cinnamon, smokey-butterscotch, toffee, apricot, orange
Honduras- mango, ginger, peach, cinnamon, chocolate, guava, grapes, sugar cane
Nicaragua- cherry, caramel, butterscotch, chocolate, cantaloupe, maple
Costa Rica- kiwi, passion fruit, nutty, raspberry, Syrupy, cherry, almond
Panama- pineapple, grapefruit, herbal, pine, chocolate, liquor
Jamaica- tobacco, mellow, cane sugar
Dominican Republic- brown sugar, caramel, butterscotch
Puerto Rico- tobacco, mellow, cane sugar
Colombia- jasmine, orange blossom, tangerine, raspberry, cherry, blackberry, honey, red grape, caramel, stone fruit, fig, chocolate, clover, orange, lemon, cranberry, almond, toffee, mango, lime, walnut, syrupy, rose, pear
Ecuador- nectarine, passionfruit, brown sugar, lime, tangerine, hibiscus
Peru- floral, citrus nutty, stone fruit, spice, chocolate, earthy
Brazil- plum, caramel, hazelnut, herbacious, orange, dark chocolate, floral
Bolivia- licorice, strawberry, hard candy, red apple, cranberry, caramel, chocolate
I would love to hear thoughts and experiences regarding your own single-origin coffee encounters, and if you agree or disagree with my profiles!
cliff notes: This entire post has been hinged upon the assumption that most tasters' palates are dialed-in, meaning that one has experienced a conventional western diet from infancy and that they have tasted a lot of coffees in a group context and been able to identify strong flavor characteristics in the coffee with the group. The Specialty Coffee Association published a great piece on Flavor Science which highlighted how unique our flavor experiences really are, yet through standard practices, it's possible to build an industry on the nuance flavor expression of one little bean.