So you need a cup of coffee to get you going in the morning, and you are probably quite happy to drink whatever brews the cappuccino machines in the office are dispensing. If its hot, it smells like coffee and it gives you the necessary head rush to start your day, thats all you need.
So it may astonish you to realise exactly how many different types and origins of coffee there are out there. Some people devote their entire careers to coffee tasting to find the perfect mix of beans to create just the right taste. These professional tasters are called cuppers and really know their coffee.
Centered on the equator, a band twenty five degrees to the north and south houses the seventy countries where coffee beans are grown. From South America and the Caribbean, to Africa and the Middle East, this strip around the centre of the globe provides just the right conditions for coffee plantations to thrive. Each country, and sometimes each area within the same country, produces beans with their own special characteristics to produce distinctive flavors.
The two main divisions of coffee beans are Arabica and Robusta. Robusta is the more potent of the two, with double...