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Flower farmer here. Without reading: terroir. All coffee is grown in soil and the soil around the world is different. All plants will grow if they get the right

Flower farmer here. Without reading: terroir. All coffee is grown in soil and the soil around the world is different. All plants will grow if they get the right inputs (water/light/air/macros/micros), but how they grow and the makeup of their harvestable material is going to vary by the _amounts_ and _timing_ of those inputs. I'd expect the same harvesting and roasting techniques applied to beans sourced from opposite ends of the earth would perform differently.

deleted 3y ago
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someonehere 3y ago
I’ll add on to this. Grew up in a farming area in Central California. The variety of orange I eat from where I grew up tastes distinct the same variety grown in SoCal.
anon84873628 3y ago
"Terroir" as typically defined is a mythical concept introduced by feudal French wine makers to justify their price fixing schemes. We're really trying to avoid importing the term into the coffee industry since it has the effect of locking producers into "their terroir" instead of acknowledging all the variables they can control (through hard work that deserves compensation) to create high quality coffee. See Lucia Solis podcast for expert commentary. But yes, latitude, altitude, and all the other inputs make a difference (in addition to the genetic variation that does exist -- I mean no one is surprised that you can get different types of apples or organes?) But recent studies have also revealed the variations in microbial community present on coffee plants in different regions. And besides agronomy or roasting, coffee processing can have a huge effect on flavor. Fermenting the beans -- whether in whole cherry with or without oxygen, pulped in tanks with yeast or bacteria, or all the other things producers are experimenting with these days-- fermentation is like an enormous sound equalizer board for dialing up and down various flavors.
- efields 3y ago
  Marketers be marketing. I appreciate the insight. I think coffee people are on a higher level than wine people, FWIW. It is a _far_ more nuanced beverage.

deleted 3y ago

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someonehere 3y ago

I’ll add on to this. Grew up in a farming area in Central California. The variety of orange I eat from where I grew up tastes distinct the same variety grown in SoCal.

anon84873628 3y ago

"Terroir" as typically defined is a mythical concept introduced by feudal French wine makers to justify their price fixing schemes. We're really trying to avoid importing the term into the coffee industry since it has the effect of locking producers into "their terroir" instead of acknowledging all the variables they can control (through hard work that deserves compensation) to create high quality coffee. See Lucia Solis podcast for expert commentary. But yes, latitude, altitude, and all the other inputs make a difference (in addition to the genetic variation that does exist -- I mean no one is surprised that you can get different types of apples or organes?) But recent studies have also revealed the variations in microbial community present on coffee plants in different regions. And besides agronomy or roasting, coffee processing can have a huge effect on flavor. Fermenting the beans -- whether in whole cherry with or without oxygen, pulped in tanks with yeast or bacteria, or all the other things producers are experimenting with these days-- fermentation is like an enormous sound equalizer board for dialing up and down various flavors.

efields 3y ago
Marketers be marketing. I appreciate the insight. I think coffee people are on a higher level than wine people, FWIW. It is a _far_ more nuanced beverage.