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Articles like this are probably planted by an industry group. The article mentions that the species was never lost because samples are held in labs, so there re

Articles like this are probably planted by an industry group. The article mentions that the species was never lost because samples are held in labs, so there really isn't any news content here. What is probably going on is that coffee prices have been in a long term slump, producers are barely making money on arabica beans, and they want to introduce a cheaper variety that isn't low-margin robusta in order to survive as the low prices persist.

alexpetralia 5y ago
A slump until the last year it seems: https://m.investing.com/commodities/us-coffee-c-historical-data https://m.investing.com/commodities/us-coffee-c-historical-d...
- soniman 5y ago
  https://www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-chart-data https://www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-ch...
cmrdporcupine 5y ago
Nah it's buzz generated out of some research from some botanists. The species itself was mostly lost in the wild and no longer cultivated as a crop because it wasn't economical at the time -- samples in labs is something else entirely. The spin that the media is putting on it is a bit weird, but as a person who breeds grapes and is a botanical geek, I'm used to seeing strange press distortions of these kinds of things. My understanding is that this species is not a cheaper producer at all. While it grows in hotter climates it producers lower volume and is harder to pick. Its value will be in breeding. Probably hybridizing with arabica.
- HaggardFinical 5y ago
  Your last paragraph is on point. James Hoffmann made a video about this (link at the top of this thread) featuring the researchers and basically this is exactly what they said as well.
- madaxe_again 5y ago
  It is cultivated - just by small growers, not by massive industrial combines. Which I guess counts as “not cultivated” these days.
maxerickson 5y ago
There's a constant shortage of the light roast I prefer. It's a national brand, not anything terribly fancy, and it could just be that a couple new people started buying it from my local store.
MattRix 5y ago
Nonsense, the news story here is based on a new scientific paper, which in turn is based on new data. This new data shows that stenophylla can grow in much higher temperatures (6.8 degrees C) than arabica, which is huge news considering the now-certainty of global warming.
detritus 5y ago
Which labs? Or do you mean botanical specimens held in places such as the British Museum, with which they can compare with to check the species - but not propagate from - as they're long-since dead? Seems to me the excitement in this news, which has been doing the rounds for at least a couple of weeks now, is that the oft-threatened single species Arabica has a similarly-tasting 'backup' in case of a global coffee rust pandemic.
- soniman 5y ago
  "Stenophylla had not been seen in the wild in Sierra Leone since 1954 and anywhere since the 1980s in Ivory Coast, Davis said. A few examples were held in coffee research collections." I think that means that there are a few labs with plants or seeds, but the discovery here is of a wild variety of the plant. Could be wrong.

alexpetralia 5y ago

A slump until the last year it seems: https://m.investing.com/commodities/us-coffee-c-historical-data https://m.investing.com/commodities/us-coffee-c-historical-d...

soniman 5y ago
https://www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-chart-data https://www.macrotrends.net/2535/coffee-prices-historical-ch...

cmrdporcupine 5y ago

Nah it's buzz generated out of some research from some botanists. The species itself was mostly lost in the wild and no longer cultivated as a crop because it wasn't economical at the time -- samples in labs is something else entirely. The spin that the media is putting on it is a bit weird, but as a person who breeds grapes and is a botanical geek, I'm used to seeing strange press distortions of these kinds of things. My understanding is that this species is not a cheaper producer at all. While it grows in hotter climates it producers lower volume and is harder to pick. Its value will be in breeding. Probably hybridizing with arabica.

HaggardFinical 5y ago
Your last paragraph is on point. James Hoffmann made a video about this (link at the top of this thread) featuring the researchers and basically this is exactly what they said as well.
madaxe_again 5y ago
It is cultivated - just by small growers, not by massive industrial combines. Which I guess counts as “not cultivated” these days.

maxerickson 5y ago

There's a constant shortage of the light roast I prefer. It's a national brand, not anything terribly fancy, and it could just be that a couple new people started buying it from my local store.

MattRix 5y ago

Nonsense, the news story here is based on a new scientific paper, which in turn is based on new data. This new data shows that stenophylla can grow in much higher temperatures (6.8 degrees C) than arabica, which is huge news considering the now-certainty of global warming.

detritus 5y ago

Which labs? Or do you mean botanical specimens held in places such as the British Museum, with which they can compare with to check the species - but not propagate from - as they're long-since dead? Seems to me the excitement in this news, which has been doing the rounds for at least a couple of weeks now, is that the oft-threatened single species Arabica has a similarly-tasting 'backup' in case of a global coffee rust pandemic.

soniman 5y ago
"Stenophylla had not been seen in the wild in Sierra Leone since 1954 and anywhere since the 1980s in Ivory Coast, Davis said. A few examples were held in coffee research collections." I think that means that there are a few labs with plants or seeds, but the discovery here is of a wild variety of the plant. Could be wrong.