1. Brazil

Brazil produces nearly 30% of the world’s coffee and almost 60% more than the next closest country. They’ve been the world leader for the last 150 years and have around 220,000 active coffee farms. Production primarily is along the southeastern coast of the country with some Robusta crops thriving on the southwestern border.

Much of Brazil’s coffee is lower quality and earmarked for instant coffee. This isn’t surprising, as producing this much sheer volume requires some economies of scale and less attention to detail, such as mass mechanical harvesting that frequently picks unripe coffee cherries. And while coffee plants thrive in Brazil, the country lacks mountainous volcanic growing regions, which have long produced some of the world’s highest-grade Arabica coffees.

2. Vietnam

Vietnam is an oft-overlooked coffee producer but surprisingly ranks second in the world climbing from a 0.1% market share after the Vietnam War to a surprising 18.6% today. The vast majority of this coffee is commodity-grade Robusta used to produce instant coffee or to create low-quality blends. Vietnam is more of a tea-drinking country, though a Vietnamese Iced Coffee is a decadent delight worth the indulgence, making coffee a primary export and cash crop.

3. Colombia

With a near-perfect growing climate, Colombia is one of the world’s finest coffee-growing countries. The temperature rarely falls below freezing, they get a ton of rain, and the country is split down the middle by the Andes Mountains with 16 active or extinct volcanoes within the country’s borders.

Colombia’s coffee industry is so well-developed that UNESCO designated the country’s coffee cultural landscape a World Heritage Site because it’s “an exceptional example of a sustainable and productive cultural landscape that is unique and representative of a tradition that is a strong symbol for coffee growing areas worldwide.”

Colombian coffee is characterized by low acidity with balanced sweetness, often with caramel notes. However, there is a ton of variety between different crops with other subtle notes like cherry, orange, vanilla, chocolate and even cola making their way into your cup.

4. Indonesia

Another mountainous, volcanic country, you may love Indonesian coffee but not even know it. That’s because many of the island nation’s high-quality roasts are branded for the regions from which they come:

• Bali
• Sumatra
• Sulawesi
• Java
• Timor
• Papua

Sumatra coffee is especially noteworthy, and a high-quality Sumatra Mandheling can be curiously complex with notes of tobacco, cocoa, smoke, cedar, and a hint of earthiness.

Sulawesi coffee is another worth noting, grown in small, high-altitude farms resulting in a cleaner yet spicier cup.

Much of Indonesia’s coffee is wet processed, meaning the coffee cherry’s pulp is removed from the bean before it’s dried. This leaves a wet, gooey residue on the outside of the bean before they’re allowed to sit and slightly ferment in the heat of the day. The resulting coffee is bright with a light yet desirable acidity that combines with the deep earthy flavors of this country’s beans to create a truly complex cup.

Read more about Indonesian coffee beans in our coffee close-up.

5. Ethiopia

The birthplace of coffee, my favorite roasts come from Ethiopia. Their beans are either wet or dry processed with each method changing the bean’s flavor substantially. Wet processed coffee is lighter and lemony while dry processed coffee is richer and much more complex, often with strong notes of berries and citrus.

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe is highly prized for it’s clean, balanced, and mild flavor profile with hints of berries, nuts, chocolate, lemon, and wine.

The Sidamo region is known for medium-bodied roasts with strong blueberry flavors mixed with mild nuttiness.

Guji is another major region that wet processes their beans bringing out notes of tangerine, lychee, and strawberry with strong acidity.

But my favorite Ethiopian coffees come from the Harrar region. Coffee from this region is dry processed and has strong wine-like characteristics with complex fruit flavors and a rich body. It’s a truly savory cup.

Regardless of the region, the natural sweetness of Ethiopian coffees make them best enjoyed without added sweeteners, and they make especially good espresso beans.

Read more about Ethiopian coffee beans in our coffee close-up.

6. Honduras

Diversity is what makes Honduran coffee special. Though the country is small, it has six distinct coffee-growing regions:

• Copan
• Opalaca
• Montecillos
• Comayugua
• El Paraiso
• Agalta

These regions span both the lowlands and highlands, allowing Honduran coffee to be graded by the elevation at which it was grown:

• Strictly Gigh Grown: Over 4,400 feet above sea level
• High Grown: 3,900-4,400 feet above sea level
• Central Standard: Below 3,900 feet above sea level

Copan is the most famous region, producing sweet coffees with strong chocolate, caramel, and citrus flavors. However, other regions produce much fruitier cups.

Opalaca is a higher altitude region known for producing coffees with robust mango notes, strong acidity, and bright aromas.

Montecillos is higher still with cool evenings that allow the beans to ripen more slowly. This introduces sweeter flavors, and beans from this region are known for their sweet stonefruit notes.

Read more about Honduran coffee beans in our coffee close-up.

7. India

India grows both Arabica and Robusta beans with Robusta having a strong edge. Indian coffee runs the gamut from impressive full-bodied roasts like Indian Mysore to bland beans best suited for instant.

Most Indian Arabica coffee tastes like Indonesian coffee and is heavily influenced by the monsoon rains. In fact, many farms process their beans by leaving them exposed to the wet and windy monsoon conditions–a process creatively called monsooning–which allows the beans to sweeten while cutting their acidity.

The coffee crop is often interspersed with cardamom, nutmeg, and clove, giving the coffee hints of these spices.

8. Uganda

When most people think of major coffee producing countries, they don’t think of Uganda. However, coffee makes up nearly 30% of Uganda’s annual foreign trade earnings. The country actually is one of the birthplaces of Robusta coffee but has become a major producer of quality Arabicas.

Bugisu coffee from eastern Uganda is grown around Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano on the border of Kenya, and processed using the wet method. In the west, farms in the Rwenzori mountains grow and process their beans using the dry method, creating what was historically called DRUGAR, short for dried Uganda Arabica.

Robusta is still grown in the country’s central lowlands.

While much of Uganda’s coffee production yields low-grade commercial beans, small lot farmers have been recognizing their country’s advantageous coffee-growing geography and making a push to up their quality. The flavor profile varies depending on whether you try eastern washed coffee or DRUGAR, but Ugandan coffee has a smooth mouthfeel with hints of stonefruit and berries, like many African coffees.

9. Mexico

A massive country spread out around the Tropic of Cancer with endlessly varied landscapes from scorched deserts to snow-capped peaks, it makes sense Mexico lands in the top 10 coffee-producing countries.

Mexican coffee comes from four growing regions with about 40% of all coffee produced classified as high-altitude coffee:

• Chiapas
• Veracruz
• Oaxaca
• Puebla

Chiapas and Oaxaca are the high-altitude regions and produce Altura coffee, which is Spanish of “high grown.” It’s distinctively light-bodied with subtle nuttiness, but the specific notes depend on the region. Chiapas is along the Mexico-Guatemala border and shares many of the same characteristics as a fine Guatemalan roast, which has much more international notoriety than its Mexican counterpart. Coffee from Chiapas often is sold under the name Tapachula.

While there are some Mexican single-origin coffees, most beans grown are used in blends and sold to Europe, making quality Mexican Arabicas harder to find in the States.

10. Guatemala

Guatemala’s population is just 13% of Mexico’s and their land is just 5.5% as large, yet they produce nearly as much coffee as their larger northern counterpart. In fact, per capita Guatemala produces 670% more coffee than Mexico.

While Mexico’s southern regions have the proper growing conditions, nearly all of Guatemala is seemingly designed to grow great coffee. There are eight distinct regions that produce the country’s Arabica-heavy beans:

• Antigua
• Acatenango Valley
• Huehuetenango
• Coban
• Nueva Oriente
• Fraijanes Plateau
• Atitlan
• San Marcos

Antigua produces the most renowned Guatemalan coffees with its near-perfect growing conditions: volcanic soil with low humidity and lots of sun yet cool nights to allow the beans to ripen slowly and develop sweeter flavors. Antigua actually is surrounded by three volcanoes, including one of the country’s three active volcanoes, Fuego.

Huehuetenango is the highest and driest growing region and lacks active volcanic activity, making it distinct from the other seven regions in Guatemala. Coffees grown here often are processed in small lot farms. That means attention to detail and an extraordinary cup with notes of orange, milk chocolate, and maple and a richer mouthfeel.

San Marcos is the warmest and wettest growing region, producing coffees that vary greatly from the others, especially Huehuetenango. This region is known as “the place where volcanoes awake” and is where you’ll find the highest volcano in Central America, Tajumulco. The rainy season extends from April through November, which causes the beans to ripen quickly. Combined with the rich, volcanic soil, coffee from San Marcos tends to be very acidic. Wet processing cuts the acidity and helps the bean develop sweeter flavors to round out the roast.

A geographically diverse country, it’s no surprise Guatemala produces some of the best specialty coffees in the world.

11. Peru

Coffee history is strong in Peru…and fascinating. In the 1800s, Europe purchased most of its coffee from Asia, but coffee rust decimated Asian coffee crops and forced European buyers to look elsewhere. Then, England accepted coffee-growing land in Peru as repayment for a defaulted loan, which helped ramp up coffee production.

Peru is mountainous as the Andes run straight through the country. That gives them both lowland and highland growing regions, creating a wide variety of coffee bean quality. As usual, however, it’s the high-altitude beans that people crave.

Unsurprisingly, the Andes Mountains have had a major impact on Peru; they make it challenging for the country to develop a strong infrastructure system. Many of Peru’s farms are small with poor supply chains, causing development groups to invest in the country and leading to a strong Fair Trade presence.

Peruvian coffee is medium-bodied with mild acidity with the characteristic nuttiness of most Central and South American coffees.

12. Nicaragua

Nicaragua was a major coffee producer up until the 1970s when natural disasters and political strife disrupted their thriving coffee industry. Only recently have they begun to re-establish themselves among the world’s coffee elites.

Sandwiched between Honduras and Costa Rica near the bottom of Central America, Nicaragua sits on a narrow strip of land just 300 miles wide with the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. There are three distinct growing regions:

• Jinotega
• Matagalpa
• Segovia

Nicaragua also is home to the largest coffee bean in the world: Maragogipe or elephant beans. These beans are nearly double the size of typical Arabica beans and the plants can withstand cooler temperatures at lower elevations. Unfortunately, Maragogipe plants have low yields, which doesn’t make them suitable for mass production, and are challenging to roast due to their large pore sizes. The beans they produce are highly variable depending on the soil and myriad other factors, often producing a thin, mediocre cup.

But don’t judge Peruvian coffee based just off Maragogipe. Most beans grown in the country are relatively high-quality and produce coffees that are medium-bodied with bright citrus notes that sometimes resemble quality African Arabicas instead of the nuttiness common among their geographical neighbors.

13. China

The Chinese don’t drink a ton of coffee (though they’re trending up) but when they do it tends to be lower-grade and/or instant. Still, the country is a large producer of Arabica, which it exports to Europe.

Much of this coffee is grown in the Yunnan province in southern China but overall it’s lacking in quality. An article by Perfect Daily Grind explains there are two reasons for this:

• Processing issues
• Much of the highly-prized farmland is devoted to tea

If Chinese citizens ever develop the taste for high-quality Arabicas, then the country may invest more resources in coffee production, which could have a huge impact on the entire industry given the country’s sheer size. For now, most Chinese-grown coffee finds its way into blends as a means of keeping costs low.

14. Cote d’Ivoire

For a small country, Cote d’Ivoire is a relatively robust coffee producer. And they aim to be even larger. But Cote d’Ivoire lacks the geography required to produce high-quality Arabicas as most of the country sits at 2,500 feet or lower, much of it just above sea level. This means they’re restricted to growing Robusta, which is prized more for its hardiness and high caffeine content than its flavor.

However, Cote d’Ivoire also grows an Arabica-Robusta hybrid called Arabusta (clever, huh?). It’s an Arabica bean with some of the genetic properties of robusta that make it hardier in low-elevation climates. Unfortunately, Arabusta plants grow slowly, though they have a longer lifespan and taste better than Robusta, and fetch up to four times the price of Robusta beans at local grocery stores.

15. United States

Only two US states grow coffee commercially: Hawaii and California.

We’ll start with Hawaii because they’re famous for the Kona bean, which you’ve undoubtedly heard of. Kona coffee is grown on the western coast of Hawaii’s Big Island on the slopes of two active volcanoes: Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Like other elite coffee-growing regions, Kona offers high elevations and plenty of rain and sun, but Kona also has near-permanent cloud cover shielding the coffee plants from destructive direct sunshine. The resulting coffee is sweet with hints of berry and lemon, though there’s a surprising amount of variation between the many tightly-packed farms.

And Kona isn’t the only coffee-growing region in Hawaii. Almost every island produces its own distinct coffee. Kauai and Molokai both produce coffees which are much mellower and smoother than a traditional Kona bean.

California has begun growing coffee commercially as well, though the volume is much smaller than Hawaii.

16. Costa Rica

Costa Rica may not be among the top coffee producers by sheer volume, but it yields more coffee per hectare than nearly any other country and three times what Mexico produces per hectare. It was also the first Central American country to grow coffee commercially and has some of the most distinct beans in the world.

Costa Rica has eight distinct growing regions:

• Tarrazu
• Central Valley
• Tres Rios
• Turrialba
• Brunca
• Guanacaste
• Orosi
• West Valley

Like most other major producers, each region has its own tasting notes.

Tarrazu is one of the most famous coffee-growing regions in the world. Beans grown here are light and clean yet exceptionally fragrant. Despite the amazingly high-quality coffee grown here, this region hasn’t gained the notoriety that other regions have, such as Hawaii’s Kona region.

Central Valley produces balanced beans with fruity flavors, hints of chocolate, and honey-like sweetness.

Tres Rios, also known as the Bordeaux of Costa Rica is a volcanic region that produces roasts with more acidity.

Brunca is humid and tropical, producing coffees that are complex and citrusy, some of which are extremely sweet.

17. Kenya

With its rich, red volcanic soil, Kenya is a prime coffee-growing country. Their beans are wet processed, making them sweeter, and frequently have win-like characteristics with citrusy acidity.

Kenya also has a strict grading system based on the bean’s size, color, shape, and density. There are eight total grades ranging from Kenya MH/ML on the low end to highly-coveted Kenya AA and Kenya Peaberry coffees.

Kenyan coffee is most similar to Ethiopian coffee, which is my personal favorite.

Read more about Kenyan coffee beans in our coffee close-up.

18. Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea shares the island of Papua with Indonesia. It’s a culturally diverse country with over 800 languages spoken among the local tribes, many of which have a history of conflict. This internal strife has made it hard for the coffee industry to find consistency among the many small lot farms, though 40% of the population earns its income from the coffee.

Though Papua New Guinea shares Papua with Indonesia, their coffees are rather dissimilar. Whereas Indonesian coffee is earthy and spicy, Papua New Guinea’s coffee is more tropical and citrusy with notes of chocolate.

19. Tanzania

Coffee is Tanzania’s largest exported crop with nine distinct growing regions, only one of which grows Robusta: Bukoba on the northern border near Lake Victoria. Like most East African coffees, Tanzania’s coffee is bright and citrusy, similar to both Kenya and Ethiopia. However, Tanzania’s coffee hasn’t reached the renowned levels of either Kenya or Ethiopia because the crop is more inconsistent.

However, there’s one big exception: Tanzania Peaberry.

Grown on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru at over 4,500 feet elevation, Tanzania Peaberry is like other peaberry coffees around the world, but Tanzania specifically is one of the most famous peaberry beans.

A typical coffee cherry produces two half-moon shaped beans, but peaberry coffee is the result of a natural mutation that produces one spherical bean inside the cherry. This occurs with about 5% of cherries and no one knows exactly why it happens. Peaberry is generally regarded as having a superior flavor for two reasons:

• More concentrated development in a single bean instead of two
• Their spherical shape roasts more evenly

If you’ve ever wanted to try peaberry coffee, start with Tanzania.

20. El Salvador

El Salvador was the fourth-largest coffee producer in the world as recently as the 1970s (although that’s 50 years ago now…) but lost its place among the elites for two reasons:

• Smaller total area than other coffee-growing countries
• Intense political strife culminating in a civil war from 1979-1992 that broke up many of the country’s larger agricultural estates

Despite being a small country, El Salvador has seven distinct coffee-growing regions:

• Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range
• Central Belt Mountain Range
• Tecapa-Chinchontepec Mountain Range
• Cacahuatique Mountain Range
• Nahuaterique Mountain Range
• Alotepeque-Metapan
• Chinchontepec Volcano

The Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range is the country’s most famous region with peaks rising over 7,000 feet near the Santa Ana volcano. This region has most of the country’s larger farms.

The other regions all have distinct altitudes, soils, and precipitation, which makes them agriculturally unique. However, El Salvador as a whole is distinct from the rest of Central America for producing the Bourbon variety of Arabica coffee, which yields a cleaner, brighter cup.

21. Ecuador