Coffee Origins

Coffee flavour profiles all over the world

Brief info

Before heading into the descriptions of different counties’ coffee, lets first cover some descriptive words that are usually used on coffee bags and will be used here too.

Ahead you’ll hear descriptors of body, this is referring to how the drink feels when drank, ranging from thin and watery like tea, to heavy and thick in mouth feel. That’s the only weird one, the rest are just flavour/ feeling descriptors such as acidity, sweetness and complexity. (complexity is the number of different flavours and aromas experienced)

Also there are many places that produce coffee, so I’ve decided to just cover 4 counties from each area to keep things manageable.

Africa

Ethiopia

Commonly thought of as the birthplace of coffee, flavours you can expect from here are quite varied, ranging from citrus to floral and even candied fruit.

Uganda

Coffees from Uganda are commonly found to be sweet with complex berry flavours, sometimes even having intense acidity with a more tart experience.

Rwanda

Rwanda like most of Africa is known for more floral and tea like coffees in mouthfeel, here specifically you can expect floral tastes and fresh red fruits (Including grape) in flavour.

Kenya

Kenya produces coffee known for it’s high sweetness and sometimes high acidity but near always with strong dark berry flavours such are blueberries or blackcurrant.

Asia

China

China is know for producing coffee with sweet and fruity notes but also have crops producing flavours with woody and earthy notes, all of which are usually low in acidity and have quite a full body.

India

Coffees from India are often not very complex in flavour with bold tastes of caramel, chocolate and earthy notes. Also known to have a fairly heavy mouthfeel.

Indonesia

Indonesian coffee is known for a heavy body with earthy, spicy, woody and even mossy flavours, these strange tastes are due to the area’s volcanic soil among other attributes.

Vietnam

Vietnam is the world’s largest producer of Robusta which is a strain of coffee that is less complex in flavour than that of Arabica, this means Vietnamese coffee is usually very low in acidity with a harsh/strong flavour ranging from chocolate to woody.

South America

Brazil

Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee overall and is one of the most common types to find when buying coffee. Beans from Brazil are usually having nutty and chocolatey flavours with a balanced mouthfeel.

Columbia

Columbian coffee kinda hits all bases as it’s varieties of flavours range from; Chocolate, caramel and nutty to light fruity and tea like flavours with red berries being common.

Honduras

Honduras produces coffees know for juicy and complex fruit flavours with a distinct sweetness. Honduras is also known for producing Bourbon which is a cultivar of Arabica, this variety is known for chocolatey flavours with floral aromas.

Nicaragua

Coffees from Nicaragua are similar to Brazil with chocolatey and nutty notes but also present vanilla and caramel as prominent flavours, usually with a balanced mouthfeel.

Alright that’s a fair few to keep an eye out for when buying your next blend or single origin, personally I’d recommend everyone to try Kenyan coffee ASAP.

I hope you’ve enjoyed, have a great week and some even better coffees.