How Experts Rated 1,229 Coffees From Countries Around The World

We plotted reviews of 1,229 coffees from 16 different countries on a graph to see which country produces the best.

Sacks of coffee beans from different countries

Last Updated on November 5, 2023

The best coffee country in the world is Ethiopia, if hundreds of professional coffee tasters are to be believed.

That’s what the data shows on the interactive chart below, which displays grades given to 1,229 coffees from around the world that were harvested from 2010 to 2018 and graded by professional tasters certified by the Coffee Quality Institute. The CQI is a non-profit organization that works internationally to improve the quality of coffee and the lives of the people who produce it. Their certified coffee graders—known as Q Graders—must pass 22 tests to prove they can grade coffee accurately and consistently by its aroma, flavor, acidity, body, balance and more.

The chart shows where coffees from the top 16 countries fell on the grading scale, with a maximum score of 100. Each coffee is represented by a dot. You can click on the dots for more information about each coffee.

Coffee-growing countries and how their coffees were rated

Africa takes top three spots

Ethiopia’s coffees, as a group, fell higher on the scale than those of any other country. Two other African nations, Kenya and Uganda, rounded out the podium.

The chart excludes the coffee-growing regions that had fewer than 20 coffees graded, and we also discarded one coffee from Honduras that somehow earned a score of zero. (That would have been unfair to all the other Honduran coffees!)

As you can see, the dots get a little bit crowded for those countries that had a lot of coffees tested. To let you see more easily how the scores were distributed, we’ve broken out separate charts for each country below, listed in order. Again, each dot represents one coffee. The vertical red dotted line indicates the mean grade for all coffees from that country.

Country-by-country coffee grades

1. Ethiopia

Average rating: 84.88
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Ethiopia

2. Kenya

Average rating: 84.31
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Kenya

3. Uganda

Average rating: 84.05
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Uganda

4. Colombia

Average rating: 83.11
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Colombia

5. El Salvador

Average rating: 83.05
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from El Salvador

6. Costa Rica

Average rating: 82.79
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Costa Rica

7. Thailand

Average rating: 82.57
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Thailand

8. Indonesia

Average rating: 82.57
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Indonesia

9. Brazil

Average rating: 82.41
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Brazil

10. Tanzania

Average rating: 82.37
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Tanzania

11. United States

Average rating: 82.21
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from the U.S.

12. Taiwan

Average rating: 82.00
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Taiwan

13. Guatemala

Average rating: 81.85
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Guatemala

14. Mexico

Average rating: 80.89
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Mexico

15. Honduras

Average rating: 80.88
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Honduras

16. Nicaragua

Average rating: 80.46
Graphic showing how experts graded coffees from Nicaragua
So there you have it, a list of the top 16 coffee countries, in order, according to professional coffee graders. If you’ve ever wondered which country has the best coffee, the answer appears to be Ethiopia, where it all began.

If you’d like to get to know coffees from a variety of countries around the world, look into an Atlas Coffee Club subscription. They are one of several coffee subscription services that deliver to your door, making it easy for you to sample coffees from everywhere.

Inspiration for this post came from Cédric Scherer’s data visualization, Not My Cup of Coffee. Data was provided by James LeDoux. Photo at top: © UK Department for International Development | Creative Commons

 

African soil yields
Berries that the world covets.
Ethiopia,
Kenya follows, Uganda—
Coffees rich as ancient land.

About the Author

6 thoughts on “How Experts Rated 1,229 Coffees From Countries Around The World”

  1. I don’t think it is accurate to conclude from this data that Ethiopia has the best coffee in the world. It has the highest average score of all of the coffees submitted for cupping to the CQI, which is both a very small set and self selected for producers who need an independent third party cup score to market their coffees internationally.

  2. Interesting article. I challenge anyone to try coffee from Cameroon and render a verdict. Try the Arabica aroma if you like it smooth or the Robusta if you like it middle stout.
    For 30 years of drinking coffee in America I haven’t met a match to Cameroonian coffee. I often wonder why is Starbuck all over the globe yet their coffees can’t come close to the delicious taste of Cameroon coffees.
    I would be pleased to share samples for the love of it.
    internationalunitedresources@gmail.com

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