I find that country of origin and region has a lot to do with how the coffee tastes.
There are three main areas/regions: Latin American, Africa and Asia.
(Broadly speaking), Latin American coffees are known for their caramel like sweeter and balanced flavors,
African for bright, fruity and floral notes with acidity.
Asian for their earthy, spicy, nutty and woody tastes.
More specifically, each individual country and even parts of countries have their own distinctive tastes.
EG:
Central America
you can expect varying amounts of acidity (more apple-ish and malic in Guatemala; cherry-like from Mexico)
and a smooth, sugar-browning sweetness that is sometimes soft like chocolate or buttery like flaky pastry crust.
"Balance" is a word to describe these coffees, and their fruit-like
characteristics often play nice as a mild backdrop to the cocoa and spice flavors.
South America
The classic Colombian profile—as with other better-quality coffees from Peru, etc—brings together a mellow acidity
and a strong caramel sweetness, perhaps with a nutty undertone. Sweet and medium-bodied, they have the most
recognizable coffee flavor to most North Americans.
Brazil
Some Brazilian beans—especially those that are pulped natural—have a pronounced peanutty quality and heavy body
that makes them common components in espresso blends. Chocolate and some spice is typical, and the coffees tend
to linger on the palate longer than other South American regions.
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and Of course, there’s still much more to it than that like,...Altitude, temperature, rainfall, sunlight and other
environmental factors.
Then you have the many varietal type of Coffee plants you can choose from to grow (Arabica alone can have like 40 varieties of plant)
Then you have the processing method like Washed or semi-washed (fermented) or natural Dry process the bean
is put through. ....which effect flavor profiles differently.
then you have coffee blending, roasting method, grind/granule size, basket-load size, tamping /compression, pre-infusion before extraction,
extraction time, extraction weight, water temperature, water quality.
then the same high quality bean you use to make/serve a coffee in a dry cool environment can turn out differently in character
to when you do it in a hot humid environment.
Some coffee affectionadoes will store beans in a temp.//moisture controlled environment and only pull them out when about to make
a coffee, ie;.. they won't have the beans sitting around in the normal atmosphere for extended hrs waiting to be used.
Some folks are even experimenting with keeping beans in dry ice till ready to put them in the grinder and then straight away made
into a coffee,
.....apparently dry iced brittle condition beans break down into a more consistent granule size.
A disclaimer here, premium coffee is not for everybody. I know people who can barely tell a difference between Folgers and fresh roast.
very True, but the premium coffee market also has fancy talking people pushing certain beans, but when I have quizzed some of them
they seem to know very little on the details and back ground of the product they are pushing....It only takes a few specific type of questions
to discover who are true coffee affectionadoes and those who are just waffling salesman cafe owners.
