A while back we posed the question, will climate change lead to worse coffee at higher prices? Arabica coffee production is threatened by hotter temperatures and extreme climate fluctuations. Arabica is superior to robusta, the other commercially dominant coffee, but robusta is a hardier coffee and more tolerant to higher temperatures. One of the potential paths forward in the world of coffee will be to cross breed robusta with arabica varieties in an attempt to produce a hardier coffee with arabica’s great taste and aroma. Another route will be to look at coffee varieties that are not now commercially dominant but have flavor and aroma characteristics of arabica along with robusta’s hardiness. One of these is Stenophylla. So, is robusta or Stenophylla the future of coffee?
Robusta Coffee
Robusta is the second most produced coffee in the world, only slightly behind arabica. It has a higher caffeine content. Robusta produces more coffee per plant, comes to maturity quicker, and is much more resistant to coffee plant diseases like coffee leaf rust. Compared to arabica, robusta does better in hot climates and when rainfall is irregular. It can be grown at both high and low altitudes. The main drawback is that robusta does not have the same flavor and aroma qualities as arabica. This issue may be resolved as growers in Asia but also places like Colombia are trying to cross breed arabica and robusta varieties to obtain robusta hardiness with arabica flavor and aroma in a single coffee.
Stenophylla Coffee
All coffee originally grew wild in Africa. There are many coffee varieties that are not grown commercially to the extent that robusta and arabica are. Nevertheless, there are some great, essentially wild, coffees. One of these is Stenophylla. It grows in West Africa, is extremely tolerant to high temperatures, and has a flavor profile similar to arabica! Prior to the last couple of years you have to go back a century to find reports about this coffee variety. This virtually forgotten variety has been rediscovered growing wild in north West Africa.
Information and Image Courtesy of Springer Nature
Not trusting century old reports of a coffee once cultivated in commercial quantities in West Africa this coffee was sent for blind taste testing to eighteen judges across the world. This coffee came from two sources. One was the Coffea Biological Resources Center on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and the other was from Sierra Leone in West Africa. The results were that this coffee is very similar to a fine arabica in taste and aroma. The coffee was said to have fruitiness, good body, natural sweetness, and a complex flavor profile. Notes of mandarin, peach, honey, jasmine, spice, chocolate, honey, nuts, caramel, and elderflower syrup will be reported in this taste testing.
How Heat Tolerant Is Stenophylla Coffee?
The issue here is preserving good tasting coffee as the world heats up. Stenophylla appears to be a great tasting coffee of a quality similar but not identical to arabica. In other words, judges in the taste testing typically thought this was great coffee but something different from arabica. Stenophylla coffee fruit is black instead of the red color of robusta or arabica. This coffee in indigenous to the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. It grows at low altitudes and significantly higher temperatures than robusta or arabica. The mean annual temperature when Stenophylla grows well is 24.9 degrees Celsius or 76 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 23 degrees Celsius or 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit for Robusta and 18.1 degrees Celsius or 64.5 degrees Fahrenheit for Arabica!
Average Temperatures in Colombian Coffee Growing Region
How does all of this apply to a place like Colombia that currently only grows arabica coffee? The average annual temperature for the city of Pereira at 1,411 meters is 21 degrees Celsius or 69 degrees Fahrenheit. The average annual temperature for Manizales at 2,160 meters is 17.7 degrees Celsius or 64 degrees Fahrenheit. The old standard arabica strains of coffee are only grown at the higher altitudes around Manizales and higher up in the Western Andes. In lower regions like around Pereira they only grow modified arabica strains that are currently tolerant to the heat currently experienced at these lower altitudes. As temperatures climb over the years there will be a need for heat tolerant strains at lower Colombian altitudes. Thus, they may end up using modified robusta strains or introducing a new variety such as Stenophylla.