Today’s coffee isn’t your grandmother’s Folgers. In her day, she had the choice of bad and worst. Today, you’re in the drivers seat. You can pick coffee from any one of 70 different countries. But which is best? If you did a side-by-side taste test of the most popular coffee growing regions of the world, which would be the 3 best coffee growing countries? That’s exactly what we, here at Lake City Coffee, are going to answer. Each video below is an biased, unforgiving, in-your-face and honest analysis of the good, bad, and ugly from 10 of top coffee growing areas in the world.
1,000 Molecules For 1,000 Tastebuds
The world of coffee is complex. Coffee beans contain over 1,000 molecules, each molecule imparts its own flavor. Mixed together, these 1,000 molecules (variables) can produce literally millions of different flavor profiles.
That being said, each continent, each region, each country, each county, each plantation, and each coffee bush has its own character. Even so, generalities can be made for each. And that’s what we’re going to do today. We’re going to taste test a bunch of coffee from around the world and see which ones stand out and which ones fall flat.
3 Best Coffee Growing Countries
We lined up 10 of the most popular coffee beans on the planet, just to find the 3 best coffee growing countries. Below you will find our taste testing results. We’ve organized both the text and video from the very best (5.0) to the very worst (0.0). Each bean has been identically processed, identically roasted, and identically brewed. There are going to be some big surprises for many of you.
Tied For 1st Place
(Video Below)
Costa Rican Coffee (4.8)
Costa Rican coffee is notoriously very smooth, i.e. non-bitter. Additionally, Costa Rican Coffee is well known for its complexity, that is to say, having several well balanced flavors, like citrus, chocolate, naturally sweet, bark, earthy, etc. Lastly, at $20 per bag, its Quality to Price Ratio (QPR) is unbeatable.
Today’s taste testing proved to live up to its reputation. As in every year, our choice of Costa Rican came from the Tarrazu Region. And as usual it was three dimensional, with unique flavors on the front, middle, and back. This year’s (2025) choice was San Rafael. It has strong notes of red berry, then dark berry, finishing with a hint of chocolate. This is perhaps the best coffee that I’ve ever tasted. It’s certainly the best Costa Rican that I’ve ever tasted.
To find our choice of San Rafael in the fall of 2024, we did, as we do each year, and that’s taste test 12-24 different beans, all from the Tarrazu Region of Costa Rica. The result of that day of taste testing, we select the best bean and then purchase enough to satisfy our customers’ needs for the next 12 months.
Kona Coffee (4.8)
Wow! I’ve had Kona coffee many times. Each time the experience is nearly spiritual. Without exception, every time that I’ve tasted Kona coffee it is super smooth, with zero bitterness. Add to that the fact that it can have all kinds of major and minor notes, ranging from citric to nut, earthy to chocolate, floral to naturally sweet.
Now here’s the kicker. Those tasting notes are balanced and integrated like a $100 bottle of fine Bordeaux wine. This is definitely one of the best coffees in the world. It’s also one of the most expensive. For the real thing, expect to pay $75 – $100 a pound.
Is it better than Costa Rican. On the whole, I’d say yes. But because we at Lake City Coffee (Alisha & Russell), go to great extents to select the very best coffee bean that Costa Rica has to offer, then no. In that instance with our selection of Costa Rican, Kona isn’t better than Costa Rican. But it is every bit as good, just different.
Guatemalan Coffee (4.0)
Not only is this Guatemalan coffee very smooth, but it also has very nice prominent and subtle tasting notes. Primarily, I taste Pistachio and Berry, which is very nicely balanced. Over the years, I’ve had Guatemala coffee a number of times. Each time it was a pleasant experience. I’d say this is a darn good 2 dimensional coffee. Very enjoyable and deserves to rank in the top 3 best coffee growing countries.
Brazilian Coffee (3.5)
For being the number one coffee producer in the world, I wasn’t expecting much, but I should have. I’ve had Brazilian a number of times and it’s always better than I expected. In today’s taste testing, the bitterness was “almost” nonexistent. The prominent flavor was “forest floor”, with minor notes of “bark”. As a whole, the flavor had a short front-middle-and finish. I’d call this a two-dimensional coffee. If I found this in a restaurant, I’d be impressed.
Papua New Guinea Coffee (3.0)
If you walked into a coffee shop and ordered a cup of coffee, there’s a good chance that you’d be getting Papua New Guinea (PNG). PNG is quite popular in coffee shops because it’s cheap and can be mixed with anything without spoiling the soup, so to speak. In this case, our PNG tasted only a very little bit bitter. It had one prominent note of hazelnut, which was quite good. The hazelnut tasted ran from start to finish. I’d call this PNG coffee a 1 dimensional coffee.
Ethiopian Coffee (2.5)
In nearly two decades of drinking coffee, I have never had an African coffee that I liked. So, was really looking forward to trying this Ethiopian. Typically, African coffee is over roasted. But in this case, our Ethiopian was a medium roast. So, I was very hopeful for being proven wrong. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. Just like in the past, the coffee was slightly bitter. It did have a naturally sweet flavor, but also one demential, i.e. the same taste from from beginning to end.
Indian Coffee (2.0)
I didn’t even know that India grew coffee, or at least, I’ve never run into it in a coffee shop. In this case, this coffee tasted a bit bitter, but not overly so. It did have a slight “earthy” flavor. Overall, I’d say it was one dimensional, with a flat flavor profile, i.e. same unremarkable taste from start to finish.
Sumatran Coffee (1.0)
Sumatra is a region inside of Indonesia (SE Asia). Today’s taste testing of Sumatra held no surprises. The coffee was bitter and one dimentional, i.e. there was only one flavor and that was “coffee”. The taste came and went quickly. I’ve had worse coffee, plenty of times. The best thing I can say about Sumatra is that it wasn’t as bad as I expected.
Mexican Coffee (0.0)
Tasted a lot like Folgers. Not bad, just not good. It definitely tasted like coffee, but there were zero notes of any prominent flavors. And it was quite bitter.
Columbian Coffee (-1.0)
Holy Smokes, no wonder Juan Valdez and his burrow died. This had to be the worst coffee that I ever tasted. Not only doesn’t it belong in the top 3 best coffee growing countries, but it doesn’t belong in the top 10! Don’t think for a minute that I just got a bad bag of Columbian beans. I’ve tasted Columbian coffee almost 100 times in my life and it’s always bad. As usual, this Columbian coffee tasted like a coffee roaster that hasn’t been cleaned in a decade.
Lake City Coffee
Years before starting Lake City Coffee, Alisha and I (Russell) started searching for the smoothest and best tasting whole bean coffee in the world. We spent years roasting, brewing, and drinking coffee from dozens and dozens of coffee regions. Eventually, we came to the conclusion that we preferred coffee from Central America, especially the Tarrazu Region of Costa Rica, which today is where we source 100% of our whole bean coffee.
Even having some of the best beans in the world, the real magic is having fresh roasted coffee. By fresh, I mean roasted coffee that’s measured in hours not months or years. That’s why we roast and ship the same day.
Lastly, having great fresh roasted coffee is only half of the equation to drinking a great cup of coffee. The trick is knowing how to brew that coffee. That’s why we have nearly 300 articles and videos on this website dedicated to teaching you how to take your coffee brewing skills to the next level.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
God Bless,
Russell & Alisha Volz