Over the past years, boosted by studies at Zurich University for Applied Sciences Coffee Excellence Center, I've been going down a bit of a rabbit hole looking into Coffea species genetic diversity and innovations in Coffea arabica.
As it stands, 99% of arabica's wild diversity is slated to go extinct within 60 years.
Party by chance, part curiosity I found myself in possession of 8 Coffea species and innovations key players are doing to adapt to a dire future. It's important to note that in regards to species, I'm not talking about varieties. These are species within the Coffea genus, of which there are currently 133. We had 8 total, 7 other than Arabica. Several are almost impossible to get, almost nobody has even heard of, and most coffee experts have not seen or tasted.
So we decided to hold a couple of presentations looking into why coffee is so endangered and so we could share this extremely rare chance for people to taste the diversity of the coffee species, and shine some light on coffee producers innovations with Arabica, ones that focus on flavor, adaptation in its hoped for survival.
Since October 25, we've held varied versions of the presentation and tasting at Torque Coffee in San Diego with Adriana Uriostegui and Michelle Owens, Driftaway Coffee in Brooklyn, 7 Drips in Tijuana, Harvest Coffee in Paris, for our team in Durham. These events culminated with a 3 hour presentation and workshop this past April at World of Coffee, San Diego.
Collaborator Adriana Uriostegui presenting at World of Coffee, San Diego
Amber Armbrust-Asselin presented on NKG's work to grow Canephora in Uganda at 1,300 meters above sea level, hand picked, slow dried and carefully processed. Alexandra Engfer-Peterson spoke to Hacienda La Esmeralda's, original sourcing of Gesha that led to many awards and the highest price ever paid for coffee, roots back to the farm seeing seeds that would be resistant to coffee leaf fungus. Edwin Noreña spoke to processing innovations, farming rare varieties and raising cups scores even with Coffee Leaf Rust resistant varieties. Ana Maria Donneys spoke to her 5th generation farms, moving into specialty and innovations to create flavor while adapting to climate and associated challenges.
Then we tasted 8 species and 12 rare and innovative Arabicas.
You can see the full presentation and coffees from the World of Coffee workshop below.
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On June 27th, we'll be holding a seated tasting at Driftaway Coffee in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn called:
7 Sips, Taste, Talk, and Flight - retro nasal, super ego & the future of coffea
The session plays out of these other sessions but as a seated and focused omakase.
I'll be brewing 5 rare coffees apropos to the subject including Coffea racemosa - only 11,000 trees cultivated on Earth - using a delicate sweetness forward recipe. We'll have a Bahama Bluebs espresso Tonic made with Daniella Boza's (delicious) Yellow Icatú processing tests that she shared with us special for our species sessions, and Ana Maria Donney's Pink Ranger brewed on the Brezi Flash cold brewer (this version was a star at World of Coffee!).
The event will sell out, so if you'd like to join, reserve via RESY now.
-- Leon
NOTE: We have one more full species presentation and tasting planned as part of the opening of our new roastery sometime late summer, early fall. So if you want to know, be sure to be on our newsletter.