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What's Different About Latin American Coffee Cultivation - Rich and Mellow Characteristics of Latin American Coffee

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat Official Account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Latin America Coffee Introduction. In the fifteenth century, coffee was introduced to Mecca, and Muslim pilgrims coming to Mecca spread coffee throughout the Islamic world. Thus, from Cairo, Istanbul, Tehran, all the way to Venice. By the end of the seventeenth century, coffee had become European

FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Latin American Coffee

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

In the fifteenth century, coffee was introduced to Mecca. Muslim pilgrims coming to Mecca spread coffee throughout the Islamic world. Thus, from Cairo, Istanbul, and Tehran, it made its way to Venice. By the late seventeenth century, coffee had become a common commodity in Europe, and coffee shop culture gradually formed. It was also because Europeans planned to produce coffee in colonies that coffee could become a global beverage and globalized crop.

There are multiple versions of how coffee was introduced to Latin America. It is generally believed that French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu (1687-1774) stole one or perhaps several coffee seedlings from the royal greenhouse in 1720 and brought them to the Caribbean island of Martinique, opening up prosperous business opportunities for Latin American coffee. Another theory suggests that the Dutch were the first to transplant coffee to the Latin American colony of Suriname.

French naval officer Gabriel Mathieu de Clieu stole one or perhaps several coffee seedlings from the royal greenhouse in 1720 and brought them to the Caribbean island of Martinique, opening up prosperous business opportunities for Latin American coffee.

The coffee growing belt is distributed between 25 degrees north and south latitude. Countries located in this growing belt include Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya, as well as vast Latin America. Arabica is a high-altitude variety and the mainstream coffee variety. Latin America has many highlands between 600 and 1,500 meters, plus sufficient sunlight, making it suitable for Arabica cultivation. A coffee plant can be harvested after four years of planting, then enters its peak production period, and can continuously produce for decades, making it an economic crop with high return on investment. However, coffee is a crop that requires a lot of labor.

During the colonial period, coffee plantation owners were local oligarchs and large landowners, with labor sources being indigenous people or black slaves. By the late nineteenth century, in addition to traditional large coffee plantations, family-run small coffee farmers began to emerge, and well-funded multinational companies also competed for the coffee market. Behind the Latin American coffee economy lies a history of cheap labor filled with exploitation, injustice, and monopoly.

Today, Latin America is one of the world's important coffee-producing regions, and coffee has become a specialty of Latin America. According to statistics, coffee plantations occupy at least forty-five percent of the arable land in Latin America today. Due to geographical advantages, Latin American coffee beans are mainly sold to the United States, followed by exports to Europe and Asia. Generally speaking, coffee-producing regions are mostly developing countries, while coffee-consuming countries are the so-called first world.

Although Latin America is a coffee-producing region, Latin Americans are also coffee lovers. In addition to common American, mocha, latte, cappuccino, and espresso, various regions also have their own drinking methods and terminology, which has led to the development of unique coffee cultures.

In Summary

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