Here’s a very basic concept: coffees from different countries have different flavors. This idea is probably kicking around in the skulls of most coffee drinkers in the United States. But why this is so—and how you can use it to your advantage—needs a little examination.
There are many, many factors that influence how a cup of coffee tastes. Depending on my mood, the complete intractability of great coffee flavor either exhilarates me or depresses me. Sometimes I just wish the whole process was easier. Some of coffee’s flavor-influencers are vanishingly subtle and some of them are about as subtle as a slap in the kisser. If I stick strictly to the super delegate kisser-slap list, I can include species, plant varietal, fruit processing, soil type, climate, roast profile, and … actually, let’s just stop there. I’m feeling sore about the kisser already.
This happy rainbow of flavor factors is the reason for confusion that arises about coffee origins. It’s not just geography that differs. The plants and the traditions of the people who grow the coffee can also vary wildly, so two coffees from within the same country can taste radically different. And two coffees from countries thousands of miles apart can taste remarkably similar.
In all, it’s a bit misleading of coffee roasters to just slap “BRAZIL” on a bag of coffee, as if that described the coffee. A commercial-grade robusta from the lowland plantations around São Paolo tastes quite literally like burnt rubber; a pulped-natural yellow bourbon from the highlands of Minas Gerais tastes quite literally like heaven.
On the flip side of the coin, there are sister coffees that can practically hold hands, flavor-wise, despite being from different ends of the globe. Among true coffee fanatics (and I should warn you, if you read too many of these columns you may turn into one of these people), certain coffees from Bolivia are prized as replacements for coffees from Central America. Follow me on this: because it’s in the Southern hemisphere, Bolivia’s harvest is on the opposite side of the calendar year. When those pretty Guatemalan coffees are either gone or faded by time (in December, say), fresh Bolivians are just coming off the boats. Because of a combination of similarities in all those factors I mentioned before, some caused by history and some just coincidental, Bolivian coffees can taste an awful lot like Guatemalans. Hence their prized status.
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