There are basically five great regional growing areas for Arabica coffee:

• The first region is defined by the mountains of Eastern Africa.
• The second, by the mountains of the Central American Isthmus.
• The third is Brazil.
• The fourth encompasses the island coffees between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
• The fifth region is a catch-all category for island coffees, including Hawaii and Jamaica.

The first great region includes the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia. The area grows the following coffees, known by the following names: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Harrar, Sidamo, Yemen, and even South Africa. These countries produce coffees that tend to be fruity, acidic, and medium-bodied, with hints of various berries, dried fruits, and raisins.

From the northernmost origin of Mexico, southward along Central America toward Colombia and Peru, the coffees of this region tend toward neutral and medium-bodied, yet acidic. There are distinct taste differences from microclimate to microclimate, however, and too many to go into here. Names you might recognize and taste are Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, especially the Antigua, El Salvador, and Honduras, Peru, Costa Rica, even Panama.

The other great region of the Western Hemisphere is Brazil, defining, with its full-bodied, naturally processed coffees, one of the few truly national styles of coffee, distinctively and immediately recognizable. The Brazil flavor, full, forward, and a tad grainy, is well known to consumers even if they do not know that the light-roasted coffee they drink in donut shops and fast-food outlets usually has a good percentage of Brazilian coffee in the blend.

The island coffees grown between the Indian and Pacific Oceans are in some ways a disparate group, but they have some distinctive characteristics as well. These coffees are uniformly of thunderous body, and range in texture from downright gravelly to a smoothness and fullness bordering on that of heavy cream. Acidity is generally low, and flavor nuances tend toward spiciness, as opposed to the fruitiness of the East African coffees. They include coffees from Java, Sumatra, New Guinea, and to some extent, India.

"Other island" is a catch-all category of exotic coffees, which often sounds more romantic than they taste. These include those of Hawaii in general and, in particular, those of the Kona Coast, as well as Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and even the Galapagos Islands. At their best, these coffees tend to be mild, neutral, and very clean, with a hint of acidity.