Does anyone know which country grows the best coffee bean? My uncle loves coffee and is tirelessly searching for that perfect cup. So as a gift, I would like to give him the perfect bean.
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Pehaps send him to sweet marias.com and have look around. I don't think there is a "best" coffee bean. It is all subjective. :-)
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Black Dog and Killer Beans have some great samplers
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:-) No such thing, anymore than there is a best wine, cigar, beer, etc. All depends on your personal tastes.:-)

does he roast his own beans, or are you looking for roasted? If the latter, look in your area for a local roaster, "best" in that case has a lot to do with freshness. Online roasters like Sweet Marias on the west coast, Intelligentsia in the midwest and Unclebeanz on the east coast are also options depending on where you live.
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Wafflers.

The best coffeebean (in the world) was mixed in with three metric tons of Ethiopian Aricha micro lot #27, 2009. I guess the rookies who posted above never tried that bean or they would have said the same thing. Too bad for them. I think I have the last three pounds in the world. If there still IS a pound for sale you'd have to ask the guy at www.unclebeanz.com. If www.unclebeanz.com doesn't have any left and your uncle was some kind of superb, premium human being (and you had a history of being a good cigar/pipe person with, like more than 50 posts) I'd probably roast him 8 ounces from what I have left but, seriously, he'd need to be one of the all-time great uncles. Perhaps you could make a convincing ultimate-uncle argument and sway me but I dunno. Your uncle would have to be equal-to-or-better-than my Uncle Ben.

After that there are a lot of beans tied for 2nd Best Bean in the World. If price = love, visit www.smithfarms.com or consider the Kona, Blue Mountain or Misty Valley here.

Seriously - those guys up above wouldn't know the best beans in the world if they jumped into their coffeecups and screamed, "We are the best beans in the world! Drink us! Drink us!!" They are good people and they are generous to a fault but they are just not up to date on top coffee. You know - like I am.
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:-).......:-):-):-)
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Is your Uncle Ben the rice guy?:-):-):-)
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Sadly I never took the advice and purchased any Ethiopian Aricha micro lot #27 from UncleBeanz :-).

Moo, have you tried any of the Panama Esmeralda Gesha lots? I got the hang of roasting them and I have never had anything as good so far. I do like the 08 better then the 09s I got, good thing for me others seem to feel the opposite.
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Are you kidding? After the Aricha I got a pounds but I was too broke to get more so I never nailed the Esmeralda roast level. See, it's like this. After what I spent on the Aricha (Best Bean in the World didn't come for $1.99/lb) I didn't have food or gas money for about six months. Boy was Mrs. Moo hot! The irony of buying insanely expensive coffee is that it keeps your spouse pissed AND wide awake at the same time. Aw... so what? She never said "No" to the coffee.

That coffee is soooooooooo smooooooooooth. It is the World's Best Bean, which the rookies (above) didn't know. You such a good man, Germ'ob, I'll send you a pound. If you fall in love with the kids uncle you can send him the eight ounces. Betcha don't.
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Well if you were typing that and thinking "he is such a nice guy he will never accept my offer especially after telling him the Mrs. was mad and I had no gas or food money for 6 months". I say times are tough everywhere, send me a pound, :-), I will return with a pound of 08 gesha or a 1/2 of 08 and a half of 09 lot 2. Sound fair?
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No. I have much coffee and YOU are way out ahead with me right now. How about a pound and leave it at that? And you decide what to do about the uncle.

Confirm addy, Germ.
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The best coffee in the world comes out of the butts of monkeys.

No sheat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak
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Only a Crotchety Geezer would say poo coffee is the best in the world. :-)

How the heck are you?
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Thanks Moo :-), you are very generous to part with such a treasure of yours.

Addy confirmed.

Now, what to do about this Uncle?
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No sir. You don't. We still have the original purchase lot left plus we have secured 40 pounds of it, vacuum sealed. Release only for the holidays. Roasted only.

Funny because all the Aricha's that appeared after 27 were not the same. What most folks do not know is that 95% of the Aricha that followed ours was shipped in bags via sea container. We had ours air freighted in hence the extremely high price. Yes, that coffee came to me after a flight on Virgin Atlantic (or BA). I still look at that receipt and smile. That shipping alone exponentially hiked the cup's quality.

It is simply the best natural coffee of all time.

We have a teeny amount of Misty Valley left. Our Gedio lot is very good too.
The original question is which country grows the best coffee.
The best coffee continent: Africa
Country: Ethiopia with Kenya a close second.
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You're in the clear. He can call UncleBeanz and buy 40-lb over the holidays. :-)
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Second is a hard call.
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I hear you on the Yemens. They're fantastic. Just preference, some Kenyan varietals are outta site.
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Panama Esmeralda Gesha: 08 lot is superior to 09. We have every 08 lot (not for sale). The conditions for growing the 08 were stellar. I have ever 09 lot.

'09 lots suffered thru terrible weather conditions which ended up in low stellar quality output. End result? get to 08 Esmeralda if you can. Of course you cannot answer that question if you're a reseller...LOL :-)
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To all, thanks for all your suggestions and insights. I guess I have to take a look at each and from there, decide what to give him. If there's a sampler of everything that all of you mentioned, I would purchase that.
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