I’ve been looking at the impact of altitude on coffee and it seems there are a few key concepts to digest. The first is the placement of the bean belt.
According to almost every resource on the internet, most of the coffee that we drink comes from between the Tropic of Capricorn (23°26′S) and the Tropic of Cancer (23°26′N). This area is known as the “Tropics”. That said, slightly outside of this region in the “Sub-Tropics” coffee can grow in a slightly different way.
In the Sub-Tropical regions, during the peak growing season of Autumn, the balance of the altitude, temperature and water drainage at high altitudes (1800-3600ft or 548-1097m) generates 1 crop for places like Mexico, Jamaica, Zimbabwe and the S. Paulo and southern parts of Brazil.
In the Tropical regions however at a higher altitude (3600-6300ft or 1097-1920m), the combination of the better drainage and the frequent rainfall allow for a second harvesting season. Countries in this zone include Kenya, Colombia, and Ethiopia.
[Source: www.coffeeresearch.org ]
P.S. And yes… this is very much a work in progress… 🙂
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