Differences Between African, Asia-Pacific, and Latin American Coffee: How to Drink Latin American Coffee

The Legend of Coffee's Discovery

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Around the 6th century AD, an Arab goatherd named Kaldi was secretly watching his goats graze when he noticed that after eating the red fruit of a wild shrub on the mountainside, the animals became unusually excited. Curious, Kaldi picked the fruit himself and found that he felt full of energy and in a very pleasant mood. He carried the fruit to a nearby monastery and told the monks about its remarkable effects, but the monks took it for the work of the devil and threw the red fruit into the fire. The fruit immediately gave off a unique, mouth-watering aroma. After the head monk fell asleep, one of the young, rebellious monks gathered the cooled beans, ground them to a powder, and poured them into a container of hot water: the world's first cup of coffee was born.

Latin America: A Premier Coffee-Growing Region

Latin America, where coffee trees were first cultivated in the 18th century, is nourished by the Amazon, the world's largest river by flow and the one with the most tributaries and the greatest length. That abundance has fostered a rich ecology across the rainforest. With advantages that include plentiful sunshine, high mountains, fertile and well-watered soil, and a diversity of natural micro-environments, the region has become the world's most important coffee-producing area.

Latin American coffees are mostly processed with the washed method. This rigorous processing gives the beans superior quality, low defect rates, and large, intact shape.

Coffees from the region generally have pleasant aromas and very balanced flavor profiles. They usually carry distinctive cocoa-like flavors while keeping a refreshing, lively acidity, which makes for a very enjoyable single-origin cup.

Characteristics of Latin American Coffee

Central and South America are regarded as the finest coffee-producing regions. Their coffees are known for being mild, bright, and elegant in fruit acidity. Almost every coffee blend includes Latin American beans. Countries in the region include Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, and more.

Latin American beans, such as those from Colombia and Guatemala, are refreshing and smooth, which makes them very suitable for blending with more distinctive African or Asian beans to create a variety of blends. Asian/Pacific beans, like Sumatra, carry an herbal character in both flavor and aroma, are less acidic, and have a richer mouthfeel, making them well suited as single-origin coffee.

Beans from Africa/Arabia, like Kenya, show a grapefruit-like acidity and aroma with a richer mouthfeel, and they are essentially ideal for iced coffee. For its drip coffee, Starbucks, for example, selects resilient, high-altitude Arabica beans that hold up under pressure and release more aroma when brewed; Robusta beans, by contrast, are more often used in instant 3-in-1 products.

Major Coffee Origins in Latin America

Brazil's Santos coffee is quite famous, and Jamaica's best known is Blue Mountain, hailed as the "pinnacle of coffee." Latin American countries including Mexico, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua all produce coffee as well.

If African coffee tends toward good berry flavors and Asian coffee toward distinct herbal, plant-like notes, then Latin American coffee belongs to the more balanced and varied category.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests these brewing parameters:

V60 / 88-90°C / 1:15 ratio / Time: two minutes

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To explore washed Latin American-style clarity, FrontStreet's Washed Yirgacheffe Gotiti Cooperative is a clean, precise cup whose washed processing makes the jasmine aroma and bright citrus acidity stand out, with green tea and honey notes after a light-medium roast; it suits pour-over, cold brew, and espresso. For a bolder, juicy washed coffee, FrontStreet's Kenya Cherry Tomato is a benchmark, since Kenya is known for its double washed processing, bringing a burst of cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, and black plum aromas with a sweet-tart, juicy body. And for the classic, balanced profile, FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is washed to keep its intense aroma, giving hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel with a balanced cup in which no single note dominates.