What Does Altitude Have To Do With My Coffee?
It’s always there… front and center on the bag of coffee… the altitude. But why is it always emblazoned on a bag of specialty coffee? What does it mean? How does it affect the taste of the coffee?
We’ll dive into this topic in this post and help you become a much more informed buyer of beans!
First of all, let’s clarify what we’re discussing. Many specialty coffee roasters will include details about the coffee on the bag— like our bag pictured above. In fact, you should look for these details: it is a sign of transparency from the roaster, that they know where their coffee comes from, and that they’re giving credit to the farmer who grew the beans.
Among these details you’ll probably see some combination of a farm or farmer’s name, a varietal, a processing method, tasting notes, roast level, and the altitude. The altitude will be a number followed by “masl”; for example, on the bag pictured above it says 1700 masl. This means “meters above sea level”. It’s in meters because, as you know, these coffees usually come from other countries, and the rest of the world uses the metric system.
That’s the fine print. Now on to the fun stuff— how it affects the taste of your coffee!
Like any plant, coffee prefers certain growing environments. Arabica coffee (the good stuff) prefers to be grown at a higher elevation than Robusta coffee (the not-so good stuff). So if you’re seeing anything around 1800 to 6300 masl on a bag, you can ascertain that it’s Arabica coffee.
To completely over-simplify this whole subject: the higher the elevation the better the coffee.
Now this doesn’t mean you won’t completely love a coffee that’s grown at a lower elevation. It’s all about personal preference! So let’s dive into how altitude changes the flavor of coffee.
Basically, the higher in altitude you go, the sweeter the coffee gets. For example, a coffee grown at 5000 masl might exhibit floral, fruit, and wine notes, whereas a coffee grown at 2,000 masl will taste more earthy and less like fruit. There’s a whole range of flavors between the two, though! The best way to learn which elevations you prefer is to taste as many different coffees as you can. What a fun task, right?
There are more contributing factors to the altitude/coffee dynamic besides just elevation. One important example is rainfall. Higher altitudes have distinct rainy and dry seasons combined with really great drainage. This means the coffee plants aren’t sitting in water, and they’re getting plenty of dry time for the sugars inside the beans to develop complexity. You’ll find more distinct and well-rounded flavors because of this. Lower altitude coffees that don’t have this excellent drainage and rainy/ dry season dynamic often have less distinct or muddied flavors, because their exposure to so much water basically diluted their flavor.
Here’s the thing, everyone has different taste preferences, especially when it comes to coffee. Now that you have this knowledge you can use it to your advantage when shopping for coffees. Maybe you want an earthy coffee that doesn’t have any overpowering fruity tasting notes: now you know to look for a lower elevation on the bag. Maybe you want a sweet fruit-bomb coffee with crazy distinct tasting notes: you know to look for a higher elevation. Plus there’s a whole range of elevations and levels of flavor in between the two. Try them all! You might find something in the middle that you absolutely love.
As with most things in coffee, this isn’t black and white. In the past, we’ve sourced some amazing coffees from low-altitude countries like Uganda and Tanzania. You have to take into account the quality of the roaster from whom you’re buying your beans. Do they provide a lot of transparency? Do they offer insightful tasting notes? Do they pay their farmers living wages? Do they roast the coffee well and to the roast level that you like? What date was the coffee roasted?
All of these factors combine with elevation and varietal and the processing method to influence the taste and quality of the coffee.
