| By :
Mark Etinger
Roasted coffee. You buy it all the time and drink it every day. In fact, Americans, Canadians, Austrians, Italians and Scandinavians are the world's biggest coffee drinkers. But have you ever thought about where coffee comes from and how it's grown? Coffee grows best in high-altitude, warm equatorial regions where the soil is rich and moist. A coffee tree looks like an evergreen shrub which has cherries on it, and each cherry contains a few beans: these beans are dried and roasted, and voila, you've got fresh roasted coffee. Coffee doesn't happen overnight, though: it takes a coffee tree up to 8 years to produce its first crop. The taste of coffee is very dependent on where coffee trees are grown, the variety of coffee tree, the chemistry of the soil, the weather (the amount of sunshine and rain is particularly important), and the altitude at which the coffee tree grows. Even from a single plantation, the quality and taste of the finished roasted coffee can vary significantly. Coffee is grown in over 50 countries around the world, the main producers being Colombia, Vietnam, Kenya, Cote d'Ivoire, and Hawaii in the United States. Here's a quick overview of some of the top roasted coffee producers: 1. Hawaii – Hawaii is the only state in America where roasted coffee is grown. The slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano provide the perfect environment for the popular Kona coffee beans to flourish. The trees are exposed to just the right amount of shade and sun; in the afternoon, thick, tropical clouds gather, and showers give the trees reprieve from the heat of the day. The result is deliciously rich, medium-bodied fresh roasted coffee. 2. Mexico – In Mexico, coffee is grown in thousands of small coffee farms, mostly located in the southern part of the country, in the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas. Mexican coffee offers depth of flavor and often has a pleasingly sharp edge to it. 3. Costa Rica – Costa Rica has a reputation for quality roasted coffee with a medium body and sharp acidity; the Costa Ricans are committed to ensuring the highest standard of processing and conscientious growing methods. Coffee is produced using wet processed arabicas; after the coffee is harvested from small farms across the country, the cherries are taken to modern, cutting edge processing facilities. 4. Ethiopia – Legend has it that the first coffee trees were discovered in this East African country. Today, coffee continues to grow in forests of wild coffee trees in the growing regions of Sidamo, Harer and Kaffa. Ethiopian roasted coffee has a full bodied, earthy flavor. 5. Yemen – Yemen roasted coffee is produced using age old, traditional techniques. It's generally grown in small family farms of just a couple of coffee trees. Because of the scarcity of water in Yemen, trees tend to produce smaller, irregular shaped coffee beans, which are rich and distinctive in taste. Hundreds of years ago, roasted coffee was shipped around the world from the Yemeni port of Mocha; thus, Mocha coffee got its name.
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