BOLIVIA
(South America) 1/6 – Bolivia
Bolivia has the potential to produce truly great coffees, and already does in very small quantities. The Country’s entire production is smaller than that of one of Brazil’s larger coffee farms. Production is shrinking year on year, and coffee farms are disappearing at an alarming rate. We may soon see coffees from Bolivia (especially great ones) almost disappear.
Source: “The World Atlas of Coffee” Second Edition, Author James Hoffmann.
BRAZIL
(South America) 2/6 – Brazil
Brazil has been the world’s largest producer of coffee for more than 150 years. Currently, Brazil grows around one-third of the world’s coffee, although in the past its market share was as high as eighty per cent. Coffee was introduced to Brazil from French Guinea in 1727, while Brazil was still under Portuguese rule.
Source: “The World Atlas of Coffee” Second Edition, Author James Hoffmann.
COLOMBIA
(South America) 3/6 – Colombia
Coffee was probably first introduced to Colombia in 1723 by Jesuits, though there are inevitably different accounts. It spread slowly as a commercial crop to various regions of the Country, but its production did not become significant until the end of the 19th century. By 1912, coffee made up approximately fifty per cent of Colombia’s total exports.
Source: “The World Atlas of Coffee” Second Edition, Author James Hoffmann.
ECUADOR
(South America) 4/6 – Ecuador
Coffee came relatively late to Ecuador, arriving in around 1860 in the province of Manabí. Coffee production spread throughout the Country and by around 1905 exports to Europe began from the port of Manta. Ecuador is one of the relatively few Countries to grow both Arabica and Robusta coffee.
Source: “The World Atlas of Coffee” Second Edition, Author James Hoffmann.
PERU
(South America) 5/6 – Peru
Coffee was first brought to Peru between 1740 and 1760, at a time when the Viceroyalty of Peru covered a larger area than the Country does today. Although the climate was well suited to large-scale coffee production, all coffee grown in the first hundred years or so was consumed locally. The first exports of coffee, to Germany and England, did not begin until 1887.
Source: “The World Atlas of Coffee” Second Edition, Author James Hoffmann.
VENEZUELA
(South America) 6/6 – Venezuela
The introduction of coffee to Venezuela is generally credited to Jesuit Priest named José Gumilla in around 1730. Venezuela came to be known for its plantations of tobacco and cacao run on slave labor, and from around 1793 there is evidence of large coffee plantations too.
Source: “The World Atlas of Coffee” Second Edition, Author James Hoffmann.