The Specialty Coffee Association’s latest Coffee Decoded installment takes on terroir, a word commonly used to describe how a crop’s flavor reflects where it was grown. The October 6 explainer argues that coffee makes this idea especially complicated because geography is only one part of the finished cup. [1]

Soil, temperature, rainfall, altitude, and local microorganisms can all influence a crop. Coffee flavor is also shaped by plant genetics, harvesting, fermentation, drying, hulling, and other decisions made by producers. Those factors interact, which makes it difficult to isolate a single cause and label it the flavor of a place. [1]

The term came into coffee through comparisons with wine. Even there, definitions vary. The International Organisation of Vine and Wine describes terroir as collective knowledge of the relationship between a physical and biological environment and the practices applied to it. That definition includes soil, topography, climate, landscape, biodiversity, and human practice. [1] [2]

Modern coffee production complicates the picture further: varieties move between continents, and processing methods cross regional boundaries. A coffee grown in one country may use genetics and techniques associated with another. The SCA therefore presents terroir less as a single scientific variable and more as a useful cultural framework for discussing the many influences behind flavor. [1]