1. New Guinea
Coffee labeled New Guinea usually comes from Papua New Guinea, which occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. These coffees are grown in peasant patches and small plantations throughout the rugged mountain highlands. The best New Guinea coffee is estate- or plantation-grown. In general, New Guinea is a low-key version of the great Indonesian coffees: not as full-bodied as the best Sumatra, less acidy and aromatic than the best Celebes, but a comfortably rich cup. Coffee marketed as Arona seems to be the currently preferred New Guinea coffee among specialty roasters. Read more »

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The Dutch were also growing coffee at Malabar in India, and in 1699 took some to Batavia in Java, in what is now Indonesia. Within a few years the Dutch colonies had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe. Today Indonesia is the fourth largest exporter of coffee in the world. Coffee comes to ASIA

1. India
About 80 percent of India’s coffee is grown in the southern state of Karnataka, and is often sold as Mysore, after the former name of that state. At its best, rich, sweet, and full-bodied. At its worst, it is heavy and lifeless.
Monsooned Malabar is the best monsooned. Monsooned Malabar coffees have been exposed for several weeks to the moist winds of the monsoon, which yellows the bean and reduces the acidity, imparting a heavy, syrupy flatness reminiscent of aged coffee .

2. Sumatra
Some of the most famous coffees of the world are grown on the gigantic islands of the Malay Archipelago: Sumatra, Sulawesi or Celebes, and Java in Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Whereas Central American coffees are distinguished by their dry, winey aftertaste, the coffees of Indonesia and New Guinea are noted for their richness, full body, long finish, and an acidity that, though pronounced, is deep- toned, gentle, and enveloped in the complexity of the coffee. Many consider the Mandheling and Ankola coffees of Sumatra the world’s finest.
Mandheling is probably the most full-bodied coffee in the world.  It has a relatively low acidity, but enough to keep the cup vibrant and interesting. The flavor, like the body, is rich, smooth, and full.

3. Sulawesi
The island of Sulawesi, formerly Celebes, spreads like a four-fingered hand in the middle of the Malay Archipelago. The Celebes coffee most likely to be found in specialty stores today is Toraja, from the mountainous area near the center of the island, in the palm of that hand. Celebes Toraja is a splendid coffee very similar to the best Sumatran coffees, though perhaps a little less rich and full-bodied, and a bit more acidy and vibrant in the upper tones. Like Sumatran, it is arguably one of the world’s finest coffees.

4. Java
Java is the first location planted the Arabica trees. Java led the world in coffee production. Most of this early acreaged has been replaced by disease-resistant robusta, but, under the sponsorship of the Indonesian government, arabica has made a modest comeback on several of the old estates originally established by the Dutch.
Java, like New Guinea, shares the low-toned richness of the other Indonesian and New Guinea coffees, but tends to be more obviously acidy, a bit lighter in body, and quicker to finish. Lurking in the acidity is a slight smoky or spicy twist.

 Coffee

The story of how coffee growing and drinking spread around the world is one of the greatest and most romantic in history.

 It starts in the Horn of Africa, in Ethiopia, where the coffee tree probably originated in the province of Kaffa. One story has it that an Ethiopian goatherd was amazed at the lively behaviour of his goats after chewing red coffee berries.

Coffee was certainly being cultivated in Yemen by the 15th century and probably much earlier than that. Yemen actively encouraged coffee drinking as it was considered preferable to the extreme side effects of Kat, a shrub whose buds and leaves were chewed as a stimulant.

The first coffeehouses were opened in Mecca and were called ‘kaveh kanes’. They were luxuriously decorated and each had an individual character. The Arabian coffeehouses soon became centres of political activity and were suppressed. Coffee and coffeehouses were subsequently banned several times over the next few decades, but they kept reappearing.

Mocha - was also the main port for the one sea route to Mecca, and was the busiest place in the world at the time. The coffee bean is the seed of the coffee tree, but when stripped of its outer layers it becomes infertile.