India grows about 3–4% of the world's coffee. This is the rest: where each origin's coffee comes from, what it tastes like, how it sits next to Indian coffee, and which bags from it Indian roasters are importing right now.
Where arabica comes from: the plant still grows wild in the forests of the south-west, and most farms are a hectare or less, selling cherry to a local washing station.
In the cup: Washed: jasmine, bergamot, lemon, black tea, light and delicate. Natural: blueberry, strawberry, wine, heavy and sweet.
31 coffees from Ethiopia in the catalog →Grown on the slopes around Mount Kenya, mostly by smallholders who deliver cherry to cooperative factories.
In the cup: Blackcurrant, grapefruit, tomato-like savoury acidity, winey and intense. Among the brightest coffees anywhere.
5 coffees from Kenya in the catalog →A thousand hills of Bourbon trees, most planted by the colonial administration and now farmed by families with a few hundred trees each.
In the cup: Red apple, orange, black tea and a syrupy sweetness. Lighter and softer than Kenya.
9 coffees from Rwanda in the catalog →Grown on Kilimanjaro's southern slopes and in the southern highlands.
In the cup: Bright citrus and blackcurrant like a softer Kenya, with a rounder, sweeter finish.
2 coffees from Tanzania in the catalog →Robusta is native to Uganda's forests, and the country is Africa's largest exporter of it.
In the cup: Elgon arabica: winey, chocolate, dried fruit. Rwenzori naturals: jammy. Robusta: heavy, dark chocolate, earthy.
1 coffee from Uganda in the catalog →Coffee was first farmed and traded here, shipped from the port of Mokha in the 1500s.
In the cup: Winey, dried fruit, dark chocolate, spice and a wild, fermenty edge. Unlike anything else.
No Indian roaster stocks it right now.Small family micro-mills, hundreds of them since the 2000s, process their own cherry and sell lots under their own name.
In the cup: Clean, bright and sweet: honey, red fruit, orange, milk chocolate.
3 coffees from Costa Rica in the catalog →A tiny origin made famous in 2004 when Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha won the Best of Panama auction and tasted like nothing judges had met before.
In the cup: Geisha: jasmine, bergamot, peach, tea-like body. Other varieties: clean, sweet, floral.
2 coffees from Panama in the catalog →Old Bourbon trees on volcanic slopes, kept when other countries replanted with higher-yielding hybrids.
In the cup: Sweet, balanced, milk chocolate and soft fruit; Pacamara adds a savoury, winey depth.
5 coffees from El Salvador in the catalog →Shade-grown in the northern highlands by cooperatives and a few large estates.
In the cup: Mild, chocolate, nuts, a gentle citrus; big-bean Maragogipe lots are soft and sweet.
4 coffees from Nicaragua in the catalog →Central America's biggest producer, once a bulk origin and now a source of fine lots from Santa Bárbara and Marcala, which was the first Central American coffee to get a protected designation of origin..
In the cup: Sweet caramel and milk chocolate, with stone fruit and florals in the best lots.
1 coffee from Honduras in the catalog →Eight named regions, each with its own climate, from the volcanic bowl of Antigua to the dry, high Huehuetenango near the Mexican border.
In the cup: Antigua: chocolate, apple, spice, full body. Huehuetenango: brighter, wine and stone fruit.
No Indian roaster stocks it right now.Three Andean ranges give Colombia harvests nearly year round and a huge range of microclimates.
In the cup: Caramel sweetness, red apple, a round, balanced acidity. Huila and Nariño lots lean to tropical fruit.
15 coffees from Colombia in the catalog →The world's biggest producer by a distance, about a third of all coffee.
In the cup: Chocolate, hazelnut, caramel, low acidity, heavy body. The classic espresso base.
3 coffees from Brazil in the catalog →Smallholders on the eastern slopes of the Andes, many certified organic because they never could afford inputs anyway.
In the cup: Mild, sweet, nutty with gentle citrus. Good Cajamarca lots show stone fruit.
2 coffees from Peru in the catalog →The Dutch planted coffee on Java in the 1690s, decades after Baba Budan reached Chikmagalur, and Java was once a byword for coffee itself.
In the cup: Earthy, herbal, cedar, tobacco, dark chocolate, very heavy body and low acidity.
8 coffees from Indonesia in the catalog →The world's second-largest producer and by far the biggest robusta grower, almost all of it planted in the Central Highlands since the 1980s.
In the cup: Strong, dark chocolate, bitter-sweet, heavy. Da Lat arabica is mild and clean.
3 coffees from Vietnam in the catalog →A young origin on the Himalayan foothills, planted mostly since the 1980s by farmers with a few hundred trees each.
In the cup: Mild, sweet, nutty, with gentle citrus. Clean rather than complex.
4 coffees from Nepal in the catalog →Coffee has grown in the Shan hills for a century, but the specialty story started in 2014 when a development project taught village groups to produce sun-dried naturals.
In the cup: Sweet, fruity naturals: dried mango, red fruit, chocolate.
1 coffee from Myanmar in the catalog →Arabica came to the northern hills in the 1970s through royal projects that replaced opium poppies.
In the cup: Mild, nutty, milk chocolate, with soft fruit in honeys.
1 coffee from Thailand in the catalog →Most coffee is garden coffee: a few dozen trees behind a village house in the highlands, picked by the family and sold as cherry or parchment.
In the cup: Fruity, winey, full-bodied, with a tropical sweetness.
No Indian roaster stocks it right now.The world's biggest coffee importer grows very little: Kona and Ka'u on the Big Island of Hawaii, a little on Maui and Kauai, Puerto Rico's old Yauco farms, and a few experimental acres in southern California.
In the cup: Kona: smooth, mild, nutty, gentle acidity, clean. Ka'u: brighter, with more fruit. Priced like a luxury.
No Indian roaster stocks it right now.Harvest months are the main crop; most origins have a smaller second picking. Altitudes are typical farm ranges, not limits. Coffee regions of India →