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Do you enjoy having a whiff of your favorite coffee brand every morning? Do you savor every sip from your coffee mug at any time of the day? Then you are one of those interesting people who think coffee-drinking should not just be an everyday habit but should be a great experience as well!

Drinking coffee is such a common experience that people have decided to enhance the experience. If you happen to love drinking coffee, you would have heard of organic coffee beans by now. If you haven’t, then you came to the right place.

The first question you probably want to ask is what are organic coffee beans? To answer that, we have to distinguish this type of beans from other coffee beans.

Organic coffee beans have a rich and tasty flavor as compared to ordinary coffee beans, which are heavily sprayed with chemicals. This is because these coffee beans are grown by environmentally-friendly ways which means nasty pesticides and harmful fertilizers weren’t used. They are grown using natural processes or methods.

Coffee bean farmers simply use what nature has provided for them. What would that be? The use of different shade trees, of course!

The various shade trees used act as protective coverings for coffee beans as they grow. These trees also do what they do best: purify the soil. This allows coffee plants to flourish without any hindrance.

These trees also attract birds and provide nesting areas for them. These birds in turn eat their natural food – bugs that may harm plants. This leads to the reduction in the use of pesticides.

In the United States, for coffee to be certified as organic, it must be produced in compliance with U.S. standards. Pesticides or other prohibited substances must not have been used on land where the beans will be grown for about three years. There should also be enough buffer space between the organic coffee and the nearest conventional crop. Crop rotation plans are also implemented so as to prevent soil depletion and erosion. Pest control becomes possible through this method.

Organic coffee is grown all over the world. Countries that lead in organic coffee production are Peru, Ethiopia and Mexico. Other than these countries, organic coffee can also be found in Bolivia, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, India, Kenya, Philippines and other Asian countries.

People nowadays are more health-conscious and prefer foods that are not only grown organically, but also without preservatives. It comes as no surprise then that the global market for organic coffee is steadily increasing. As of 2006, 148 million pounds of coffee were sold all over the world. Forty-four percent of the total was consumed in the United States alone. Since 2003, global sales have increased by 56 percent.

Organic coffee beans are sold in different kinds in the market. These include caffeinated or decaffeinated, instant and flavored. People have even become more creative and now organic coffee ice cream and yogurt are available. And if you have a sweet tooth, you’d love them in hard candies or you can even have them chocolate-covered. Not bad for a simple coffee bean!

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