Coffee came to the Americas by way of the daring if not mildly crazy Frenchman Mathieu de Clieu who brought the first seedlings to Martinique in the beginning of the 18th century after smuggling the clippings from the botanical gardens in Paris. En route, the seedlings survived Tunisian pirates, storms, and a serious water shortage (de Clieu shared his "scanty" water shortage with the plants). Cultivation spread through the Caribbean and on to Mexico and then from there seedlings were brought to the Isle of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean where spontaneous mutation led to the development of the Bourbon coffee varietal.

Varietals
Bourbon coffee abounds throughout the Americas from Brazil to Oaxaca Mexico. Another of the original heirloom varietals, Maragoype, which first appeared in Brazil produces a rather large beans and has been cross pollinated with the Pacas variety to make Pacamara coffee of which you might find from El Salvador. Caturra and Catuai is prominent in most of Central and South America. Colombia uses traditional varietals but there has been a recently developed hybrid which is higher yielding and more disease resistant called simply, Colombia or Colombiana. Recent offerings from Panama of the Geisha varietal have met with extremely high accolades of the verbal and monetary kind.

Processing
Most American coffees are wet milled, lending to their exciting flavors. In wet milling the fruit is picked ripe and then the cherries are pulped. The beans are then put into fermentation tanks where they sit for 24-48 hours in the sticky mucilage left on them and then washed through channels where some of the initial sorting by density occurs. After being washed the coffees are spread out on patios where they are raked and rotated as they dry in the sun. After patio drying the coffee rest in its parchment until the beans have reached the proper moisture levels, usually from 30 to 60 days. Once at the proper moisture level has been reached the coffee goes through a huller which separates and clears the parchment. From there the coffee is further sorted by density and bean size on gravity tables and sometimes color sorted by laser.

 
Dry Processed Coffee - Brazil                   Wet Processed (washed) Coffee - Colombia Organic

In Brazil there can be many different milling methods used on the same farm. The natural dry method in which fruit is dried whole and sometimes on the tree gives a deep and complex body to the coffee while the semi washed or pulped natural coffee can get similar results. The idea is that the sugars of the fruit can be absorbed by the beans.

Flavors
Brazilian coffee is big bodied and rich with dark chocolate and mild leather and tobacco notes with a sweet spiciness and Cognac and Brandy notes. Coffee from Central American tends to be medium to full bodied and a usually well balanced acidity that can highlight enticing fruit notes of tamarind, nectarine, orange, and cherry. Usually these coffees have chocolate, vanilla, or even caramel sweetness and soft floral notes. Many of these coffees can be very dynamic, offering up new surprises as they cool in the cup. Colombian coffee tends to be very full bodied with a bright cherry to tomato-like acidity while Peruvian coffee can have a mildly creamy body with dry cocoa notes and a sweet almond finish. Bolivia is also full bodied, but with honey and maple sweetness coupled with a pleasant floral acidity.