The Rise of The United States Coffee Industry

Although coffee is a beverage enjoyed worldwide, high-altitude regions with abundant sunshine and moderate rainfall are considered the most suitable for harvesting coffee beans. In the United States, three areas, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and California are rapidly becoming leading coffee producers, though they don’t necessarily meet these criteria.

Hawaii

The soil’s mineral content on the Big Island’s Hualalai and Mauna Loa slopes gives Kona coffee its distinctive sweet and fruity flavor. Peaberries are lone beans inside the coffee cherries or fruits of the coffee plant, where two beans typically exist. Coffee connoisseurs believe that the rich flavor these beans produce is due to the high concentration of nutrients peaberries receive, compared with that of two beans that share a cherry. Kona coffee Holualoa HI is the delicious result of this phenomenon.

Puerto Rico

Coffee production in the United States is highest in the small territory of Puerto Rico, though not as well-known as that of Hawaii. Although the island’s interior mountainous regions have a sunny and moderate climate favorable for growing coffee crops, farmers in recent years are experimenting with innovative state-of-the-art agricultural methods that extend the usable land for coffee crops to shadier regions. The results are specialty coffees for which there is high demand.

California

Coffee farmers in California are experimenting with coffee-growing methods similar to those taking hold in Puerto Rico. Like their Puerto Rican counterparts, California coffee farmers see the potential for a specialty coffee industry that relies on crops grown in the shade by planting coffee bushes beneath the shade of avocado trees. Both crops have similar soil and irrigation requirements enabling farmers to double their land use, though specialty coffee commands a significantly higher profit than avocados, despite a much smaller yield.

Many world regions are responsible for exceptional coffee. Still, the United States is quickly becoming a leader in the specialty coffee industry due to its unique geography and innovative agricultural methods.