Coffee Growing Climates

Coffee Growing Climates
There are certain conditions that must be met in order to grow Coffea arabica, or arabica coffee, well.
  • Altitude – trees must be planted at high elevations, between 1,800 and 3,600 feet
  • Temperature – coffee trees do best in subtropical and equatorial regions with relatively cool temperatures between 60˚F and 75˚F and a swing of temperature with warm days and chilly evenings
  • Rainfall – ideal conditions would be a rainy season—with 60-100” of rain per season—followed by a dry season (some regions have more than one rainy season resulting in more than one harvest)
  • Sunlight – coffee trees do best when grown in the shade with only a couple of hours of direct sunlight. In places where the trees are not shaded the weather is typically rainy or cloudy enough to mimic shaded conditions
  • Soil – rich soil is best for growing anything well and coffee is no different. Most coffee is grown in volcanic soil that is well drained

Exactly where in the world do these conditions exist? In “The Coffee Belt”, of course! Between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer is the ideal location to grow coffee. The climate is perfect and the many mountains (dormant volcanoes) have both the ideal elevation and rich soil.

Our gourmet arabica bean coffees are grown in equatorial and sub-tropical countries found along “The Coffee Belt” and include the only state in the US that coffee can be grown successfully.

  • African and Arabian
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Tanzania
    • Yemen
    • Burundi
  • Caribbean
    • Haiti
    • Jamaica
    • Dominican Republic
  • Central American
    • Guatemala
    • Honduras
    • Costa Rica
    • Nicaragua
    • El Salvador
    • Panama
  • India
  • Indonesia
    • Bali
    • Sumatra
    • Indonesia
    • Timor
    • Papua New Guinea
  • North America
    • Hawaii
  • South America
    • Brazil
    • Colombia
    • Bolivia
    • Peru

There are some coffees which are grown outside of “The Coffee Belt” but other than Coffea canephora, or robusta, these coffees are not of a high enough quality to be sold for consumption. Robusta must be grown within 10˚ of the equator and need lower altitudes and higher temperatures.