COFFEE BELT? WHAT THE....
You may be wondering where your delicious cup of coffee actually originated from. The speciality coffee industry is really good at being transparent regarding where the coffee comes from even down to the farm.
But when you zoom out - are there regions where speciality coffee is typically grown? Yes. It’s called the coffee belt and it’s the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn aka 24 degrees north and south of the equator.
So coffee plants are grown only in hot regions? Yes and no… It’s a factor but coffee plants thrive in moist, tropical climates that have both wet and dry seasons. They like a mix of rain and shaded sun and love rich soil at high altitudes. Here’s an overview:
Climate: Warm and humid temperatures, ranging from 15 to 24 degrees Celsius (59 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit).
Altitude: Ideally between 600 and 2,000 meters (1,968 and 6,562 feet) above sea level.
Rainfall: Moderate to high rainfall, around 1,200 to 2,000 millimetres (47 to 79 inches) per year.
Soil: Rich in organic matter and well-drained.
The coffee belt spans five continents. Here’s an overview of the coffee belt countries:
South America – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.
Central America – Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Panama.
Africa – Burundi, DRCongo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe
Asia – Thailand, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Java, Sumatra, Papua Guinea and Indonesia.
Oceania – Australia
Over 70 countries are part of the coffee belt, each producing coffee with unique flavours and aromas due to variations in these factors. The top 5 countries producing arabica coffee beans are Brazil, Columbia, Ethiopia, Honduras and Vietnam.
Why do we mention arabica coffee specifically? Arabica is typically the type of coffee used for speciality coffee while Robusta is typically commercial grade. You can learn more about that in this blog post.
