Terroir

Terroir is the idea, borrowed from wine, that where a coffee grows shapes how it tastes. It bundles together soil composition, altitude, rainfall, sunlight, temperature swings, and even the surrounding plants into a single sense of place. Two farms a few kilometers apart can produce noticeably different cups from the same variety.

Why it matters: terroir is a big part of why a Kenyan coffee tastes bright and blackcurrant-like while an Indonesian one leans earthy and full-bodied. It explains the character a region is known for, before roasting or brewing ever enter the picture.

That said, terroir is not the whole story. The variety of the plant, the processing method, roasting, and your brew all layer on top of it. Think of terroir as the raw material, the baseline a green coffee starts from, which everything downstream then expresses or muddies. When a bag lists a specific farm, region, and elevation, it is inviting you to taste that place. For more depth, see terroir-and-altitude.