Glossary: Single origin

Cof­fee beans from one loca­tion, region or coun­try. It could be as spe­cific as to refer to a sin­gle farm, estate or co-op.

Cof­fee beans taste dif­fer­ent based on where they grow; the species of cof­fee tree, the types of soil, the cli­mate and alti­tude of the plan­ta­tion all make a dif­fer­ence. Though har­vest­ing skills, pro­cess­ing, and roast — all human fac­tors — effect the taste, it always comes down to nat­ural fac­tors when we try to eval­u­ate the indi­vid­ual char­ac­ter­is­tics of cof­fee beans. Hence, the coun­try name, plus the region within it, are quite enough to explain how the cof­fee should taste.

In gen­eral, cof­fees can be grouped into three prin­ci­pal regions: Africa, Indone­sia and Central/South Amer­ica. The guide­line on how cof­fees from each region com­pare: Central/South Amer­ica has a more del­i­cate and lively acid­ity; Africa has a wilder taste; Indone­sia has a round­ness and heav­ier body.

Sin­gle ori­gin beans are sea­sonal crops. It depends on pre­cip­i­ta­tion and tem­per­a­ture, when the cof­fee trees are har­vested, and the polit­i­cal con­di­tion. Some beans may dis­ap­pear from the mar­ket for months or even years.

Com­pared to darker roasts used for blends, sin­gle ori­gin cof­fee beans don’t have to use a dark roast to blunt its char­ac­ter­is­tics to play well with other beans. Instead, a lighter roast can reveal its acid­ity, del­i­cacy and real body.