Effects of global warming - destruction of coffee ecosystems vs. creation of new ones

Discuss flavors, brew temperatures, blending, and cupping notes.
YeetSkeeterson
Posts: 336
Joined: 5 years ago

#1: Post by YeetSkeeterson »

Given the currently documentable impact of rising temperatures and extreme weather in traditional coffee growing regions, do you feel this will be offset by the creation of new regions suitable for growing coffee and where do you imagine them turning up? There is no mistaking the effect of extreme weather in every part of the globe, and regardless of the characteristic of a region, these weather events can wipe crops out no problem.

With the requirements of nice soil, elevation, humidity, and moderate temperatures, coffee needs a sort of "solar system" style of conditions that are just right, like the formation of the Earth.

Is it more likely that the coffee bean itself will be the thing to adapt and if conditions continue to get worse, can we manage to make coffees as good as the ones that have been produced the past 10 years?

DamianWarS
Posts: 1380
Joined: 4 years ago

#2: Post by DamianWarS replying to YeetSkeeterson »

there has recently been a rediscovered coffee variety called Coffea stenophylla. it's not Coffea Arabica or Coffea Canephora (robusta), it's different so I'm not quite sure if that's still called a variety or not. Arabica likes high elevation forested conditions about 20c in temp but stenophylla seems to like it a little hotter and doesn't need to be quite as high grown. Arabica and Robusta have been crossed bred to create a hybridized variety called Timor, it then was crossed with Caturra (a dwarf Bourbor) to make Catimor and this all makes more resilient coffee but Catimors never really score that high or turn heads. Stenophylla is a bit different and it may have the potential to replace Arabica in a post-climate changed world or grow in more harsh conditions. Hoffmann did a video a while back about stenophylla, but I don't think it as a cultivar has developed enough to see its full potential and I would even question the sample Hoffmann got. once it actually gets some good yields and good farming/processing practices then it would be interesting what sort of impact it could have on the industry.