Many factors contribute to high quality coffee, one of them being ideal growing conditions.

To fulfill a coffee bean's potential, careful selection must be exercised at each step, from growing to processing, buying, roasting, and blending.

There are two commercially cultivated species of coffee tree: arabica and robusta. Both species are tropical evergreens, are intolerant to frost, and belong to the family Coffea.

Peet's coffees are made purely of arabica beans. There is a wide range of quality among arabicas due to differences in altitude, soil, weather, and processing. The finest arabicas are grown at elevations of 4,000 to 6,000 feet in rich volcanic soil and harvested with selective picking practices. The arabica species is indigenous to Ethiopia, but has been successfully transplanted to the rest of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

The older varieties of arabica produce the best flavor, and these somewhat fragile, older varietals require partial shade to protect the cherries from getting too much sun. Although the best tasting arabicas are grown at high elevation, the overnight temperature cannot drop below freezing; arabica trees cannot survive frost. Elevations between 4,000 and 6,000 feet provide cooler nighttime temperatures so the cherry's growth is slower, yielding more concentrated flavors and better acidity. Volcanic soil is rich in nutrients and provides good drainage.

Coffee Picking
Provided with ideal growing conditions, growers can also employ selective picking so that coffee cherries are picked only when ripe. Only ripe cherries have the potential for producing top quality coffee, but not all the cherries ripen at once. In fact, there is often a space of a few months from the first ripe cherries a tree produces to the last.

A truly quality-conscious grower may send pickers out to the same trees as many as five times a season, maximizing the potential for quality by picking only the ripe cherries on each visit.