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The World's Best Single-Origin Coffee Beans Are in Africa! African Coffee Bean Varieties, Characteristics, and Growing Regions

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat Official Account: cafe_style). Coffee beans originated in Ethiopia, Africa. However, countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala are also important coffee-producing regions today. To date, there are thousands of coffee bean varieties worldwide.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

Coffee beans originated in Ethiopia, Africa. However, countries such as Brazil, Colombia, and Guatemala are also important coffee-producing regions today.

To date, there are thousands of coffee bean varieties worldwide. Many are identified by their origin to indicate unique flavors such as acidity, aroma, richness, and smoothness. Coffee beans from the three major continents each have their characteristics. Simply put, 【American beans】 have balanced flavor and mouthfeel, with soft fruity acidity and nutty, cocoa-like flavors; 【African beans】 have rich tropical fruit flavors; 【Asian beans】 tend toward quality herbal, spice, and caramel notes, with a relatively thick texture.

Many people dislike acidity in coffee and prefer very rich or even strong-flavored coffee. But if you want to become a coffee connoisseur, the key to entry is understanding the acidity in coffee. It must be noted that the more acidic a coffee is, the better it is not necessarily. The sweet and acidic substances in coffee are components that contribute to the complexity of coffee flavor. Some coffees have high acidity that is puckering and receive very low scores in professional cupping. Some coffees, while containing acidity, have a comfortable and rounded acidity that is sweet with acid, thus receiving higher scores.

Coffee Acidity

Green coffee beans contain components related to sour taste, such as citric acid, malic acid, quinic acid, and phosphoric acid. However, these are not the source of the acidity perceived when drinking coffee. The acidity created by roasting is the main source of sour taste.

Once green beans are roasted, various components undergo chemical reactions, creating new acids. The most representative reactions are the decomposition of chlorogenic acids to produce quinic acid, and the decomposition of oligosaccharides to produce volatile formic acid and acetic acid.

What Makes Coffee's Acidity Charming?

First, the acidity in coffee is related to both the green coffee beans themselves and the degree of roasting. Particularly, some African coffees have soft and bright acidity—like sweetness, silky smoothness. Adding some bright acidity makes them appear full-bodied with rich mouthfeel. Some coffees have very stimulating acidity that feels piercing in the mouth,属于极酸.

If a cup of coffee only has bitterness or acidity without other flavors, then this cup of coffee is very poor. There's an essential difference between acidity and astringency. Acidity is perceived when there's a saliva-producing sensation on both sides of the back-middle part of the tongue after drinking coffee, while astringency is a numbing and rough sensation on the tongue surface, throat, and palate after drinking, like drinking coffee with gauze strips.

Astringency is an undesirable taste in coffee, representing defects from green beans to roasting and even brewing. A good coffee should not be bitter or astringent.

For example, we might say African beans have "bright acidity" or "fruity acidity." Wonderful acidity gives coffee richer connotation.

Inferior Quality: rotten acidity, sharp acidity, very high acidity, puckering, vinegar-like acidity

Premium Quality: fruity acidity, fresh acidity, rounded acidity, soft acidity

African Growing Regions

Flavor Characteristics: Charming fruit acidity

African Bean Flavors: Among them, Ethiopian coffee has strong citrus aroma, Kenyan coffee has rich berry aroma, along with sour fragrance of plum juice and grapefruit, and cane sugar sweetness. The citrus aroma of Ethiopian coffee and the berry fragrance of Kenyan coffee are the greatest characteristics of African beans, and also what fascinates coffee enthusiasts most.

The general characteristics of African coffee are rich aroma and charming fruit acidity. Its bright acidity is lively and refreshing, but African coffee's richness is often somewhat thin, and sweetness is not very prominent. Due to drought and water scarcity in Africa, natural processing is mostly used for green beans. Bean shapes are often uneven and not aesthetically pleasing, with higher defect rates.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia is an agricultural country with history and tradition that can be called the origin of coffee. Yirgacheffe and Sidamo can represent Ethiopia's overall flavor. Ethiopia is Africa's main exporter of Arabica coffee beans. It has a soft mouthfeel, wild wine-like aroma, and slight acidity, leaving an unforgettable impression after tasting.

These four cultivation systems are distributed across Ethiopia's nine major growing regions: Jimma, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe, Harar, Limu, Illubabor, Keffa (Lekempti), Tepi, and Bebeka.

Yirgacheffe (Premium Growing Region): Altitude 1,800-2,000 meters | Garden Coffee System

Yirgacheffe is subordinate to the Sidamo growing region but was separated due to its unique flavor.

In addition to the town of Yirgacheffe, it also includes three surrounding sub-regions: Wenago, Kochere, Gelena, and Abaya.

Under Yirgacheffe, there are various villages, micro-regions, cooperatives, and processing stations. In most parts of Ethiopia, coffee farmers still live very difficult lives. They don't have sufficient capacity to build family-style processing workshops, so many processing stations emerge to centrally purchase coffee cherries from surrounding small farmers, process them, and then sell to green bean merchants. Like 【FrontStreet Coffee · Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry Project】, even with only Red Cherry Project information, sometimes the bean information received is very detailed, allowing understanding that this bean comes from a certain village, for example 【FrontStreet Coffee · Yirgacheffe Berry Orchard】, tracing back to Yirgacheffe Kochere Town Bolje Village Lot1 Natural G1-Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Kochere Bolje Lot1 Natural G1.

The dry aroma of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans emits rich fruit fragrance, with heavy berry flavors, strawberry, and grass jam aromas.

The wet aroma is like sweet syrup, like thick apricot pulp, dried plums, and lemon peel. The entrance is not intense, with medium body, lively and bright acidity, like fruit tea.

Sidamo (Premium Growing Region): Altitude 1,400-2,200 meters | Garden Coffee System

Flavor similar to Yirgacheffe. Finely washed or natural processed Sidamo similarly has floral and citrus aromas.

The Sidamo growing region is located in southern Ethiopia. Agriculture dominates the local industry, with coffee growing areas located around the Great Rift Valley.

The region's greatest advantage lies in soil fertility maintained through organic matter circulation, using fallen leaves from surrounding trees or plant roots as fertilizer, thus creating distinctive characteristics for town-produced coffee, or medium roast flavor: wild ginger and bergamot, with blackcurrant notes, grapefruit sweetness, comfortable Earl Grey tea.

What is G1—Coffee Bean Grading

Ethiopian coffee beans use this defect bean proportion grading method. Indonesian beans are mainly divided into 6 grades, namely G1~G6. Ethiopia also uses this method. The highest grades for washed beans are G1 and G2; the highest grades for natural beans are G1 and G3.

Washed: Grade-1; Grade-2 (G1>G2)

Washed processed coffee flavors are less likely to have wild flavors, possessing pure and refreshing characteristics. Some exceptionally high-quality Ethiopian washed coffee beans sometimes reveal obvious rising lemon, citrus essential oils, jasmine fragrance, honey flavors, etc. Acidity is more obvious, while body is thin.

Ethiopia's coffee varieties are almost all local native varieties. Nearly 2000 varieties have been recorded, with 1927 native varieties that are relatively round and very small. Most Ethiopian beans belong to native varieties. Unlike the similar-looking internet-famous faces, they haven't been selected by botanists, come in various shapes, and are often considered defective beans. Uneven color... uneven roasting... uneven size... For all these, there are gains and losses. The variety mixture and uneven particle size are precisely the reasons for Ethiopia's rich flavors and colorful aromas.

Kenya

Kenya grows high-quality Arabica coffee beans. The coffee beans almost absorb the essence of the entire coffee cherry, having slight acidity and rich aroma, making them very popular among Europeans, especially in the UK where Kenyan coffee has surpassed Costa Rican coffee to become one of the most popular coffees.

Kenya AA grade coffee is the finest among African coffees, with thick and full quality, slightly acidic, smooth taste with slight wine aroma. AA grade represents Kenya's highest grade coffee beans. Kenyan coffee cultivation methods mainly consist of two types: large farms and cooperatives. The former generally has larger planting areas and independent coffee processing facilities. Most coffee production is completed by numerous small farmers.

Small farmers form coffee cooperatives. Coffee from different growing regions has subtle flavor differences due to microclimate variations, with overall rich and intense aroma, bright and lively acidity, full and elegant body, and berry flavors.

Varieties

Kenya's [SL28] and [SL34] (direct Bourbon line) were created in 1930 by Scott Laboratories, abbreviated as SL. Agronomists wanted to find a Bourbon variety resistant to diseases and pests with high yield. Through experiments, they obtained SL28. Kenya's high-concentration phosphorus soil nurtures Kenyan beans' special sour aroma, giving the charming plum berry taste when tasting the acidity.

Ruiru11 is the first variety successfully recognized by the Kenya Coffee Committee, although specialty coffee buyers have a cold attitude toward this variety. In recent years, the Coffee Committee introduced another variety called Batian. Quality seems to have improved, and people are optimistic about its future cupping performance.

Kenya 72-Hour Fermentation Washed Processing Method

This originated in Kenya as a repeated processing method of fermentation followed by washing. Processing begins on the harvest day, selecting the highest quality cherries for pulping and fermentation. Fermentation time is 24 hours. After 24 hours, they are washed with clean river water. Then, they undergo another 24-hour fermentation in clean river water, followed by washing. After repeating this cycle 3 times to reach 72 hours, it's called Kenyan 72-hour fermentation washed processing method, abbreviated as 【K72】.

Kenyan coffee grades are divided into seven levels according to coffee bean size, and into six levels according to taste from top to bottom. Kenya's best coffee grade is Peaberry (PB), followed by AA++, AA+, AA, AB, etc., in sequence. Premium coffee is bright and shiny, delicious with slight wine aroma.

E: "Elephant beans," extra-large size, relatively small production

AA: This is a relatively common grade with larger coffee beans, particle size above 18 mesh or 7.22mm. These beans usually fetch the highest prices.

AB: This grade combines A (16 mesh or 6.80mm) with B (15 mesh or 6.20mm); accounts for about 30% of Kenya's annual coffee production.

PB (PeaBerry) Round Beans: This is grading for small round beans. This refers to coffee fruits that grow only one kernel instead of the usual two kernels.

FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan coffee enters fresh and clean with black plum, nectarine acidity, good transparency. When temperature drops, acidity carries corn sweetness, overall very refreshing.

Burundi "Heart of Africa"

Burundi's coffee has citrus, berry, and floral notes, with diverse flavors attracting people's attention. The main variety is Bourbon, with washed processing. Burundi's geographical environment is suitable for coffee cultivation, with mountainous terrain, suitable altitude and climate, adapted to numerous small coffee farmers. Production is mostly by small farmers who send their harvested ripe berries to processing stations for unified processing.

Burundi's Main Growing Regions

Kayanza: Located in northern Burundi, adjacent to Rwanda, producing high-quality coffee.

Ngozi: Has blackberry and stone fruit flavors.

Mpemba: Sometimes has cream candy and floral tea flavors.

Kirimiro: This region is close to Burundi's central Kigiga province. Its coffee processing company has the country's highest-altitude washing station.

The taste is wild, with strong residual flavors and aroma. The rich fragrance differs from most high-quality and mild coffees on the market, receiving high praise in Europe. The dry aroma is very strong, not inferior to Kenyan; intense feeling upon entry, like vanilla flavor, somewhat wild feeling. The coffee is rich, acidity lower than Kenya's, texture slightly thicker than Kenya's, aftertaste lighter than Kenya's, with inherent East African bean characteristics, yet quite unique.

Rwanda

Among these four coffee-producing countries, Rwanda has higher domestic recognition. The country is mountainous, also known as the "Land of a Thousand Hills." Its fertile volcanic soil, stable year-round rainfall, high altitude, and other superior natural conditions guarantee coffee bean cultivation.

Under such natural conditions, Rwandan coffee beans have high quality, with special fruit sweetness and rich grass and floral aromas, attracting many coffee enthusiasts who love Rwandan coffee beans.

Rwanda's Main Growing Regions

Western Province: Near Lake Kivu, there are famous Rwandan washing stations, stably producing rich, aromatic, and juicy premium coffee. For example, Nyanyumba in Rubavu produces COE-level beans with citrus, raspberry, toffee, and chocolate flavors.

Northern Province: Has citrus, stone fruit, and caramel flavors, relatively balanced.

Southern Province: High-altitude coffee beans have floral and citrus flavors. For example, beans from Nyakibanda green coffee farm have tropical fruit, citrus, and honey flavors.

Eastern Province: Fewer coffee gardens and washing stations, coffee has chocolate and fruit flavors.

Lime acidity is quite obvious, grape juice acidity, rich floral aroma, high acidity, pleasant sweetness, medium body, nutty aftertaste in the back end, overall pure, mild, smooth texture, balanced and lively with varied layers.

Uganda

Every year, major African coffee-producing countries hold national green bean competitions called "Taste of Harvest" (TOH), similar to Central and South America's Cup of Excellence. TOH has become an arena for discovering the best coffees from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Congo.

Although Uganda is a major Robusta producer, it still has quality Arabica beans such as Typica, SL14, SL28. SL varieties come from Scott Lab's research and selection. Kenyan coffee became world-famous due to SL28 and SL34, so the Ugandan government heavily promoted this, distributing SL seeds to farmers. Among them, SL14 not only has good flavor but also drought resistance, and can be harvested just two years after planting, quite meeting farmers' needs.

Coffee grading is called Q and R grading by experts. Coffee scoring above 80 is considered specialty coffee and automatically attracts good markets and even better prices. Therefore, competition shows that good practices can benefit farmers. As part of its mission, UCDA regularly trains farmers nationwide to produce quality coffee through good processing methods. Therefore, regions like Kanungu, Sipi, Iganga, and Luwero all have areas producing high-quality coffee.

Uganda's Main Growing Regions

Western Region: Mount Rwenzori. The snow-capped Mount Rwenzori is located in the west, growing Ugandan natural processed Arabica beans called "Drugar," with wine-like, fruit flavors and good acidity.

Bugisu: Small farms in Bugisu and Mount Elgon are situated at altitudes of 1600-1900m, producing Arabica beans with rich mouthfeel, sweetness, and chocolate flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee Uganda Natural SL14 & SL28: Sweet orange juice feeling, citrus, berry and other fruit flavors, clear and bright acidity, smooth texture, spices, woody, complex mouthfeel.

Coffee Tasting

When coffee enters your mouth, you can feel its flavor. In this regard, many enthusiasts, especially those just starting to explore coffee tasting, always think coffee doesn't taste as good as it smells. Indeed, sensory discrimination of coffee liquid in the mouth requires some practice, but over time, the flavors within can be perceived.

Advanced coffee tasting is how to distinguish coffee's sweetness, saltiness, acidity, and bitterness.

A cup of coffee's taste cannot be simply summarized by country of origin. For specialty beans, it's best to divide origin by growing region and estate, as cultivation methods and post-processing all lead to flavor differences.

"This bean's dry aroma leans toward the elegant jasmine."

"This aftertaste is great! First a bit of passion fruit acidity, with sufficient aftertaste, and finally some nutty notes in the finish."

"I still prefer Geisha when it cools down, more sweetness, peach flavor, sweet potato sweetness."

Gradually, you can taste the bitterness in coffee, citrus flavors in coffee, and the skill to distinguish taste from aroma. So, step by step, learn while drinking, enjoy the fun of specialty coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee African Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted African coffee beans: FrontStreet Coffee Ethiopia Yirgacheffe coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee Kenya AA coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee Burundi coffee beans, etc., all have full guarantees in brand and quality. More importantly, the price-performance ratio is extremely high. A half-pound (227 grams) package costs only about 80-90 yuan. Calculating at 15g per pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups of coffee, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to cafés selling dozens of yuan per cup, this is extremely cost-effective.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and unknown beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Teach you simple ways to identify fresh coffee beans: 2-7 days after roasting, no rancid smell, has aroma, uniform shape, relatively hard, one-way valve packaging.

The sour and bitter tastes of coffee beans are mainly influenced by roasting time. Light roast beans are lighter in color, have less oil, and smell of natural fruit aroma; dark roast beans are often darker, oily, and carry chocolate and other aromas.

Friends who like sourness can choose brownish light roast beans; those who love bitterness can choose darker dark roast beans!

When selecting packaging, try to choose designs with "one-way valve" that allow coffee beans to release carbon dioxide while blocking external oxygen. When purchasing, pay attention to clear marking of specific dates on the packaging to ensure the quality of coffee you buy.

Additionally, starting from the roasting date, coffee bean freshness will decline over time. It's recommended to use within three weeks after opening to ensure optimal drinking condition.

Coffee Bean Variety Regional Analysis

The world's coffee-producing regions are distributed in the areas north and south of the equator, also called the "coffee belt." Among the coffee belt, there are more than 10 coffee bean varieties, but currently the most common coffee bean varieties are only Arabica and Robusta.

In the early days when coffee was not yet popular, due to limited channels for obtaining excellent coffee beans, Robusta beans commonly grown in Asian regions were more prevalent. This type of bean is generally grown in lower altitude areas. Due to climate influence, the beans' fat and sugar content are lower, and the taste is more bitter and intense, without much flavor variation or characteristics.

Another type, Arabica beans grown in high-altitude areas, is the variety of the vast majority of specialty coffee beans on the market. Because they grow in higher altitude areas, growth is slower, allowing development of well-flavored beans. Therefore, overall, Arabica beans taste sweeter, softer, and fruit-rich, loved by coffee enthusiasts.

Although common coffee beans can be divided into the above 2 categories and their characteristics summarized, in reality, coffee bean flavors are affected not only by altitude but also by soil, monsoons, climate change, etc., creating taste variations. Therefore, each coffee-producing country and estate has different flavors. You can start with a world map to find favorite bean flavors, then research different estates' beans in that country if interested, making it more efficient to find coffee suitable for you.

Try more to find the coffee beans that suit your taste best~

Coffee Flavor Distribution and Characteristics

► Central America (Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica)

The taste is relatively light, with good flavor balance in beans. The mouthfeel is not too intense, tasting sweet with low acidity, and the aftertaste reveals fruit aroma, fresh fragrance with fruit acidity.

► Pacific Region (Hawaii)

Overall sweet fragrance, relatively mild taste, and fragrant, smooth, and gentle.

► South America (Brazil)

Currently the highest production area, with overall relatively intense taste. Chocolate aftertaste remains in the mouth upon entry.

► Asia (Mandheling)

Due to relatively low altitude, overall has earthy aroma or smoky flavor, with bitter cocoa aftertaste and thick body.

► Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, etc.)

This region is the origin of coffee, thus has more varieties. Generally, the aroma is wilder. The best African coffee beans have strawberry or blueberry aftertaste.

► Taiwan

Generally similar to Asian-produced beans, with cocoa aftertaste. But beans produced in Pingtung's Dawu Mountain, coffee expert Lin Huan believes you can taste cucumber aroma, one of his favorite Taiwanese beans.

Berry Orchard: Berries, floral, grape acidity

Flower Queen: Wild ginger, bergamot, blackcurrant, various tropical fruit acidity