Your next pour-over may be Liberica or excelsa

Climate change has coffee growers searching for alternative crop strains.

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[Defenestrar]

Well, if that doesn't work there's always a mash up using CRISPR and wheat… Just think, we could have caffeinated grape-nuts for breakfast! (The original recipe even used a coffee grinder - so this is just biotech bringing things full circle).

 

[DarthSlack]

I hate this timeline.

 

[UserIDAlreadyInUse]

Well, if that doesn't work there's always a mash up using CRISPR and wheat… Just think, we could have caffeinated grape-nuts for breakfast! (The original recipe even used a coffee grinder - so this is just biotech bringing things full circle).

That goes against every commandment by every God and Goddess in human history, and is blasphemy against all. I mean, seriously.....Grape Nuts??

 

[Veritas super omens]

The is a clear sign the end is nigh.

 

[SirOmega]

Staying on the tree can also mean the fruit starts to ferment before it’s harvested, so the coffee it makes tastes like dreck.

So that's the Starbucks formula!

Well, if that doesn't work there's always a mash up using CRISPR and wheat… Just think, we could have caffeinated grape-nuts for breakfast! (The original recipe even used a coffee grinder - so this is just biotech bringing things full circle).

What's next, baconated grapefruit?

 

[mDuo13]

"Molecular coffee" is roasted date pips with flavors and caffeine added? No thank you.

More sustainable coffee farming techniques, effective coffee rust countermeasures, or new cultivars? Sure. I'm not convinced excelsa is there yet from this brief article, but at least it's an actual related plant.

 

[whiteknave]

Or they can just start growing Arabica and Robusto in Canada in a few years.

 

[Defenestrar]

I hate this timeline.

The timeline authority declares that it has no responsibility for the notice to opt in to "the better timeline" got lost in the postal system. You are welcome to take it up with them at the local branch office during visiting hours on the fifth Tuesday of the thirteenth month between noon and 12:15 Adromeda Standard. But good luck with that, even if you're early enough in line, the physics of timelines means that you are now irrevocably forked.

 

[Oldnoobguy]

That goes against every commandment by every God and Goddess in human history, and is blasphemy against all. I mean, seriously.....Grape Nuts??

Hey! Some people like Grape Nuts! In fact I just had an idea. Why waste time brewing coffee or heating up water. If you have a burr coffee grinder, you could set it to the coarsest grind, the one suitable for a French press. Then you could mix together the grinds and Grape Nuts in a bowl, pour your preferred milk type beverage over it and sit down to breakfast. No more waiting for the coffee to brew and you'll have fewer dishes to wash.

 

[Faceless Man]

What's next, baconated grapefruit?

How about grapefruit that doesn't mess up your metabolism so people on blood pressure medications can eat them?

Or, you know, just grapefruit that tastes nice. Or maybe just have an orange.

 

[Bocarcaro]

James Hoffman did an interesting video on the topic of Liberica

 

[Drvelocity]

Tasting notes of a recent Ugandan crop “include cocoa nibs, peanut butter, dried fruits, Demerra sugar, and maple syrup.

I'm an espresso fanatic, but this kind of description of coffee (or wine) has always come off to me like the same woo-woo you read in very high end speaker reviews. You mean to tell me you tasted not just cane sugar in the coffee but "the first pressing" thereof?

 

[DarthSlack]

Hey! Some people like Grape Nuts! In fact I just had an idea. Why waste time brewing coffee or heating up water. If you have a burr coffee grinder, you could set it to the coarsest grind, the one suitable for a French press. Then you could mix together the grinds and Grape Nuts in a bowl, pour your preferred milk type beverage over it and sit down to breakfast. No more waiting for the coffee to brew and you'll have fewer dishes to wash.

Blasphemer!

 

[normally butters]

James Hoffmann is skeptical about liberica and super-excited about coffea stenophylla. He says it's the only non-arabica species that a weird coffee nerd like him could confuse for arabica. Like liberica, it's also from West Africa and is significantly more heat-tolerant than arabica. He's also talked about yemenia, which is a lost genetic variety of cultivated arabica which subsequently evolved more heat and drought tolerance in the wild.

 

[Deleted member 485025]

We, as a society, need to ban Keurig and other single use coffee pods.

So much plastic in a landfill

 

[Bernardo Verda]

I seem to recall, that before they came up with the idea of roasting the coffee beans for making coffee, they mashed the whole coffee cherry and made wine from it.

(And before that they mashed the whole cherry, mixed it with fat, and rolled it into pellets that they used as trail rations on military excursions.)

Tastes change.

 

[Aurich]

Not in the least bit surprised that the coffee-drinking Ars audience has already mentioned James Hoffmann twice in the comments. That's my go-to coffee guy too.

 

[Static and Noise]

"Molecular coffee" is roasted date pips with flavors and caffeine added? No thank you.

Why? I mean, why? If it tastes the same, has the same caffein, and is as (un)healthy as "normal" coffee, what's the problem?

 

[sep332]

We, as a society, need to ban Keurig and other single use coffee pods.

So much plastic in a landfill

A lot of those are recyclable aluminum. Maybe just ban the plastic ones.

 

[Sajuuk]

Something must be done.

About the root issue, which is climate change, right?



About the root issue, right?

 

[Deleted member 174040]

I'm an espresso fanatic, but this kind of description of coffee (or wine) has always come off to me like the same woo-woo you read in very high end speaker reviews. You mean to tell me you tasted not just cane sugar in the coffee but "the first pressing" thereof?

You never taste all those things at once.

Those are secondary notes (and yes it’s it completely subjective) that the taster/buyer detects on successive tastings when drinking a very small amount of the coffee black. As a brief guideline, when I see berry descriptions, that indicates higher acidity (a notable trait in African coffees). When I see chocolate descriptions, that (usually) indicates tannin levels.

 

[reverend_atari]

James Hoffman did an interesting video on the topic of Liberica

Came looking for a James Hoffman reference and was not let down

However, what does Hames Joffman have to say about it? This wild boi has opinions!

 

[watermeloncup]

I guess it's either this or soykaf.

 

[zaco]

I don't drink coffee, but I get the idea that tasting notes might be similar between coffee and wine. IE completely random and made up on the spot.

Actually, I don't drink wine, either. Not recently, anyway. I have classified wine into two taste categories: good (mostly reds, especially Shiraz), and bad (most whites, especially Chardonay).

Tea is something I can talk extensively about, though, as I drink it most days. Again, there's good (unflavoured, black teas especially from the Assam region) and bad (flavoured black teas, especially Earl Grey). There's also execrable (Lapsang Souchong, and most other "smoky" teas). There's a bunch of other stuff about grades, leaf shape, and some stuff bordering on terroir for tea. All of which I know a bit about, certainly more than for coffee or wine, but not enough to be an expert.

In any event, I am personally more concerned about the threat climate change poses to tea, so I'll be looking at that Nature article linked above, but the coffee thing isn't to be sneezed at. And then there's the double threat posed to bananas of climate change and genomic stagnation. We really ought to be doing something about that.

You should try the “butter” oolong tea, if you haven’t already.

 

[Golgo1]

We, as a society, need to ban Keurig and other single use coffee pods.

So much plastic in a landfill

Need to ban non-compostable/recyclable pods. Many brands are switching, but some regulation to FORCE a switch could be useful

I don't know if it has ever been studied, but if I had to guess*, the landfill waste from Starbucks shops are more than all the household Kcups combined

*admittedly, a very uneducated guess.

 

[watermeloncup]

Honestly, a service that just put a coffee-cup-sized amount of caffeine into pill form (or something dissolvable anyways) would be fine. I only drink coffee because I'm addicted to the drug and it is cheap and accessible. I'd drink caffeinated hot water if I had to.

Caffeine pills are readily available online and at stores, including time release varieties. I use them on road trips to reduce bathroom stops.

 

[Baumi]

I'm an espresso fanatic, but this kind of description of coffee (or wine) has always come off to me like the same woo-woo you read in very high end speaker reviews. You mean to tell me you tasted not just cane sugar in the coffee but "the first pressing" thereof?

Again James Hoffmann has a good explanation. (Should be linking to the correct time, if not, it starts at 15:41.)

The TL;DR: There are really only a handful of taste categories that apply to coffee (e.g., fruity, nutty, acidic). The producers choose words from whichever categories they feel apply to their coffee. However, the exact terms they pick are basically marketing fluff.

So, the descriptions are helpful in the sense that if you liked a coffee that was advertised as having “notes of almonds”, chances are that you might also like a coffee that has something about nuts in the description. In neither case should you expect to actually taste almonds or nuts, though. It’s just a shorthand to give you an idea of what general kind of taste to expect.

 

[Kilbane]

It's always fascinating to read the description of "tasting notes." I know some people on the planet have essentially super human noses and taste buds but every time the wife and I get a coffee or wine that has all this listing of wonderful sounding taste combinations the response is "Well.. it tastes like.. coffee." It's rare that either of us can imagine tasting what is described, and that's usually a hopeful reach. I often wonder what other miraculous things we miss out on. Humans really are spread across a wide spectrum.

 

[demiurge]

Cultivars for all kinds of edible plants have been selected for by humans for yield and taste. Different conditions will always influence what gets grown commercially. I wouldn't call it a "silver lining", but I can't see how seriously considering other coffee species and cultivars can be a bad thing. Some people might even like the new cultivars and hybrids better than the coffee they currently drink.

 

[caution live frogs]

We, as a society, need to ban Keurig and other single use coffee pods.

So much plastic in a landfill

A very popular pod-based espresso system uses recyclable aluminim pods. Just saying, don't paint it as a pods vs. no pods issue. Keurig didn't HAVE to settle on plastic. Elimination of the plastic pods I can get behind, but non-plastic pods are not a bad thing. I buy the aluminum ones on purpose, because the only other option I have at work is a shitty Starbucks kiosk.

 

[naris48]

We, as a society, need to ban Keurig and other single use coffee pods.

So much plastic in a landfill

That is what these are for Keurig My K-Cup Universal Reusable Filter MultiStream Technology - Gray

 

[The Crunchy Frog]

I don't drink coffee, but I get the idea that tasting notes might be similar between coffee and wine. IE completely random and made up on the spot.

Actually, I don't drink wine, either. Not recently, anyway. I have classified wine into two taste categories: good (mostly reds, especially Shiraz), and bad (most whites, especially Chardonay).

Tea is something I can talk extensively about, though, as I drink it most days. Again, there's good (unflavoured, black teas especially from the Assam region) and bad (flavoured black teas, especially Earl Grey). There's also execrable (Lapsang Souchong, and most other "smoky" teas). There's a bunch of other stuff about grades, leaf shape, and some stuff bordering on terroir for tea. All of which I know a bit about, certainly more than for coffee or wine, but not enough to be an expert.

In any event, I am personally more concerned about the threat climate change poses to tea, so I'll be looking at that Nature article linked above, but the coffee thing isn't to be sneezed at. And then there's the double threat posed to bananas of climate change and genomic stagnation. We really ought to be doing something about that.

I have a hard time discerning the tasting notes for espresso, so I have at times wondered the same thing, but I have found a trick for being able to definitively smell the items in the tasting notes: after I drink the espresso, if I want to experience those tasting notes, I do not wash out the cup. I let whatever is left in the cup sit until it dries completely. Once it’s dry, I stick my nose in the cup and take a whiff. It smells exactly like what the tasting notes describe. It’s lovely.

 

[Deleted member 174040]

However, the exact terms they pick are basically marketing fluff.

Not always. As I noted above, different soils and climates (and plant strains!) can produce different, notable, secondary notes.

every time the wife and I get a coffee or wine that has all this listing of wonderful sounding taste combinations the response is "Well.. it tastes like.. coffee."

It is coffee! That’s the major note you’ll always get and especially if you’ve added milk or sugar to it.

 

[CrystalCowboy]

Coffee is uniquely vulnerable to climate change...
Tea plantations are facing similar problems, so switching to tea won’t help.

FFS, someone needs a refresher on what unique means.

 

[nehinks]

Again James Hoffmann has a good explanation. (Should be linking to the correct time, if not, it starts at 15:41.)

The TL;DR: There are really only a handful of taste categories that apply to coffee (e.g., fruity, nutty, acidic). The producers choose words from whichever categories they feel apply to their coffee. However, the exact terms they pick are basically marketing fluff.

So, the descriptions are helpful in the sense that if you liked a coffee that was advertised as having “notes of almonds”, chances are that you might also like a coffee that has something about nuts in the description. In neither case should you expect to actually taste almonds or nuts, though. It’s just a shorthand to give you an idea of what general kind of taste to expect.

Interesting. I hate acidic/sour coffee, so have learned to avoid any that say they are "bright" (Tarrazu, I'm looking at you). I should look up the glossary of acidic terms so I can rule out others more easily.

 

[Dhalgren]

We, as a society, need to ban Keurig and other single use coffee pods.

So much plastic in a landfill

Agreed, but not really related to the article?

 

[Deleted member 174040]

Interesting. I hate acidic/sour coffee, so have learned to avoid any that say they are "bright" (Tarrazu, I'm looking at you). I should look up the glossary of acidic terms so I can rule out others more easily.

If it’s really sour, it’s overbrewed. Usually means that the water was too hot, or the grounds sat too long in the water.

There’s a difference between a fruitbomb, and a mouth puckering overbrew.