Where in the World is Your Coffee Grown?

When we sip our morning coffees it’s hard to imagine how much effort has gone into growing, producing and transporting the ingredients that go into them.

Coffee is grown in over 70 different countries around the world and is produced most intensively around the equator, where the conditions for growing coffee are most optimum. Nowadays when you walk into your local supermarket or any high street café you’re likely to see a large variety of coffees from Costa Rican to Peruvian and even Parisian, but what’s the difference between the coffees produced in these different countries?

Listed below are some of the most popular and interesting coffee producing areas from around the world and a description of the characteristics of the coffee that they produce.

African Coffee

There are three main coffee producing countries in the African continent; Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Ethiopia produces some of the world’s most unusual coffees and is believed to be where the Arabica coffee tree originated. African coffees are renowned for their rich and full-bodied flavour, which is due to the mildly acidic soils that the trees grow in.

Caribbean and Mexican Coffee

Mexican coffee is one of the most popular coffees in North America as it is renowned for its soft and mellow taste. Costa Rican and Jamaican coffees are known for their variety of coffees produced, all of which are very high quality and increasing in popularity. It is recommended that Costa Rican coffee should be prepared using a filter or cafétiere coffee maker to fully extract the rich flavours.

South American Coffee

Some of the world’s finest coffees are produced in the Andes mountain regions of South America. Brazil is the largest supplier of coffee and the second largest coffee consuming country in the world. The coffee trade in Brazil employs over five million people and supplies 30% of the worlds coffee supply. Columbia is the second largest producing 10% of the world’s coffee. Unfortunately Peru’s share of the coffee trade has dropped considerably due to political and economic issues, which has increased the value of quality Peruvian coffee around the world.

Indonesian Coffee

Vietnam is one of the largest coffee producing country in world, providing 7.5% of the world’s coffee. Vietnam predominantly produces Robusta coffee beans, which are used in some of the worlds most expensive coffees including ’caphe cut chon’, which is made from coffee that has ‘passed through’ the civet cat, which gives the coffee bean an enhanced taste that is desirable by many coffee connoisseurs around the world.

Indian Coffee

Despite India’s association with tea, it is in fact one of the first countries in the world to grow coffee. Indian coffee is not as high quality as Caribbean, African or Indonesian coffee as most of the coffee is grown in the southern states of Karanataka and Tamil Nadu, where the monsoon weather varies the soil acidity seasonally. Monsooned coffee is known for its heavy bodied taste that is often used to add depth to an espresso blend.

Image Credits: Szymon Kochański and INeedCoffee.

Miele washing machine recommendations on Mumsnet

Cananybodyhelp is, as the name suggests, in need of help and it’s all to do with a broken washing machine. The cry for assistance is at Mumsnet and is simply asking for recommendations on a washing machine brand that won’t falter like their previous model. Responses have picked Miele as the option to go for,

Emsyj, Horton and Asktheaudience all believe Miele is would be the most suitable choice for Cananybodyhelp,

“Miele miele miele miele miele

10 year guarantee with their machines. Ours is brill. My mum’s got one too and she loves it!”

“I second Miele. They are slightly more expensive than the average machine (think the basic model is about £500) but they will last at least five times as long. An [washing machine] engineer once told me he’d never buy anything but a Miele.”

“Miele are worth the £££.

We had a rubbish one before, heaved it into the dump with huge relief when it died, and splashed on a Miele. It is FAB.”

Other comments on the thread discuss the Miele brand and its credentials in terms of reliability and value for money. To read them, or join in the conversation yourself, click through.

Eurocucina with Miele

“In the hustle and bustle of Design Week in Milan 2010 I was lucky enough to attend Eurocucina with the brilliant folks at Miele.”

The words of Inspirational Geek Gary Thornton (@gthornton101), who spent last week hanging out with Miele investigating the Eurocucina exhibition, which gave an insight into Future Technologies for the Kitchen (FTK). As explained by Gary in his post on the event not everything on display is actually that fanciful when it comes to seeing it in a kitchen near you – especially where Miele is concerned.

As far as the future of kitchens goes Gary came to two conclusions fairly quickly,

“We are most defiinitely a touch screen generation [and] secondly, people love colour change LEDs.”

While these arguably could be seen as unnecessary, Gary thinks the opposite and that the implementation of details like this is where the value lies,

“Touch screen interfaces adorn a whole host of gadgets and appliances, with Miele shining as a standout example of this. Intuitive, clean, clear and functional interfaces add fantastic usability to many of their products, not just touch screen for touch screen’s sake, which notably seemed to overcomplicate things and add unnecessary clutter to some of their competitors.”

Gary’s post doesn’t just focus on Miele though, with plenty of products demonstrating cutting edge tech that had him impressed. And even outside FTK there was more than he could get to see in terms of what we can expect to see in the way design trends for the near future.

I have to say these chairs that remind me of a Rubik’s cube look particularly enticing.

There is loads more akin to this in the full post at Inspirational Geek, and all that wouldn’t squeeze in there Gary has posted on his Flickr, so be sure to check in there.

Miele S381 – for your consideration…

At dooyoo Nar2 has reviewed the S381, offering the model as one of the cheaper ways to own a Miele.

The review is exceptionally detailed going into all aspects of the machine, covering price, performance, design and build quality. When it comes to performance, for Nar2, it’s about picking up the fiddly dirt,

“Threads and hair are always the worst tests for suction only floor heads, but the Miele S381 picks them up with ease only requiring one to two passes for difficult to remove fluff.”

Overall Nar2 sees the Miele S381 as a great value vacuum that doesn’t compromise on performance. To read all her thoughts follow the link.

Miele dishwashers recommended – for value, guarantee and quietness

Siaron of paidtoshop.co.uk has a problem with her dishwasher, and is asking for recommendations. Boffin suggests “going for something with a long guarantee” – citing Miele and Siemens as offering the longest around. Lemmovolvoman is impressed with his Miele, as he “doesn’t even notice it it’s that quiet.”

Gold member SUSIEQ gets involved suggesting “Another vote for Miele here. Not cheap, but a great investment in my opinion”, while an engineer told 3littlepigs that “Bosch and Miele are the best”. Join in conversation over here, or leave a comment below if you feel so inclined. We’d love to hear from you.