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Is it possible to add more genetic diversity to coffee? Might taste better too

sli 6y ago
There's quite a lot of diversity in coffee already. Coffees from different regions taste wildly different. Climate change is just ravaging the coffee band. Ethiopian coffee will likely be gone in a couple decades as the growing region is pushed north into the Ethiopian highlands where it can't be grown since the highlands are actually huge pillars of rock rather than highlands as people typically understand them. It's a shame, really, because Ethiopian coffee is absolutely wonderful.
- adrianN 6y ago
  How much of the Ethiopian economy is made up of coffee exports?
  - UweSchmidt 6y ago
    34% (Google has become worse for long tail search queries, but interestingly now has an 'answer box' for wide ranging questions like this one.)
    - kevinmchugh 6y ago
      Be careful with those answer boxes, they don't always answer the question you want to know. It seems that coffee is 34% of Ethiopian exports, not their economy
    - ziml77 6y ago
      Please don't blindly trust those answer boxes. One example of an answer that looks simple and definitive but was actually way off: https://youtu.be/TbHBHhZOglw?t=58 https://youtu.be/TbHBHhZOglw?t=58
- 40four 6y ago
  I hope it does not go away, one of my favorite types of beans for sure!
Orou 6y ago
Most people drink coffee blends rather than single-origin. And in the U.S. at least dark roast coffee is very popular. Once the beans have been roasted that much the subtler coffee flavors are going to mostly disappear and it won't matter what sort of coffee it is. How coffee is prepared generally has a much greater impact on flavor than the varietal - when very lightly roasted it has a flavor profile closer to a tea than what we generally think of as coffee. Most people are unfamiliar with existing diversity of coffees from around the world. A lot of that is due to the economics of the coffee industry and the desire for consistency in flavor. Sure, maybe we could add more genetic diversity, but it's unlikely to change how the coffee you'd buy at the supermarket or a cafe chain will taste.
beowulfey 6y ago
Arabica is the most common variety of coffee. There is another species, Robusta, that is far less delicious (if you’ve had Vietnamese coffee without the condensed milk, that’s often robusta) and is resistant to coffee rust. It also contains more caffeine. There are groups trying to make hybrids between them which is actually what I suspect is happening in this article.
- yesbabyyes 6y ago
  There is also Liberica, or Liberian coffee, which saved the Indonesian coffee industry in the late 19th century, when their Arabica plantations collapsed due to coffee rust.

sli 6y ago

There's quite a lot of diversity in coffee already. Coffees from different regions taste wildly different. Climate change is just ravaging the coffee band. Ethiopian coffee will likely be gone in a couple decades as the growing region is pushed north into the Ethiopian highlands where it can't be grown since the highlands are actually huge pillars of rock rather than highlands as people typically understand them. It's a shame, really, because Ethiopian coffee is absolutely wonderful.

adrianN 6y ago
How much of the Ethiopian economy is made up of coffee exports?
- UweSchmidt 6y ago
  34% (Google has become worse for long tail search queries, but interestingly now has an 'answer box' for wide ranging questions like this one.)
  - kevinmchugh 6y ago
    Be careful with those answer boxes, they don't always answer the question you want to know. It seems that coffee is 34% of Ethiopian exports, not their economy
  - ziml77 6y ago
    Please don't blindly trust those answer boxes. One example of an answer that looks simple and definitive but was actually way off: https://youtu.be/TbHBHhZOglw?t=58 https://youtu.be/TbHBHhZOglw?t=58
40four 6y ago
I hope it does not go away, one of my favorite types of beans for sure!

Orou 6y ago

Most people drink coffee blends rather than single-origin. And in the U.S. at least dark roast coffee is very popular. Once the beans have been roasted that much the subtler coffee flavors are going to mostly disappear and it won't matter what sort of coffee it is. How coffee is prepared generally has a much greater impact on flavor than the varietal - when very lightly roasted it has a flavor profile closer to a tea than what we generally think of as coffee. Most people are unfamiliar with existing diversity of coffees from around the world. A lot of that is due to the economics of the coffee industry and the desire for consistency in flavor. Sure, maybe we could add more genetic diversity, but it's unlikely to change how the coffee you'd buy at the supermarket or a cafe chain will taste.

beowulfey 6y ago

Arabica is the most common variety of coffee. There is another species, Robusta, that is far less delicious (if you’ve had Vietnamese coffee without the condensed milk, that’s often robusta) and is resistant to coffee rust. It also contains more caffeine. There are groups trying to make hybrids between them which is actually what I suspect is happening in this article.

yesbabyyes 6y ago
There is also Liberica, or Liberian coffee, which saved the Indonesian coffee industry in the late 19th century, when their Arabica plantations collapsed due to coffee rust.