Coffee comes from all around the world and is therefore a truly international trade. It is cultivated between a 'belt' roughly bounded by the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Around two-thirds of it comes from the Americas but there are many large and small producers in countries such as Arabia, India, Africa, West Indies, Java and Sumatra. The coffee from each different area of the world has its own unique taste. Click on the map below for more information about a specific coffee producing region.

The best varieties of coffee had, for a long time, been those which came from Arabia, known as moka or Yemen coffee, as well as coffee from the Bourbon (or Reunion) Island and Martinique. The names have been preserved in the trade to distringuish three types of coffee, although the designation in no way implies origin. The three types are:

Moka - small, irregular grains, yellowing in colour and convex on both sides.
Bourbon - medium sized grains, yellowing and oblong.
Martinique - the biggest grains, rounded at the ends, greenish in colour.

• Latin America and The Caribbean
• Africa and Arabia
• India
• Indonesia and New Guinea