3) Plant Genetics

The Science of Coffee

How can you make better coffee at home? Well, an easy way is to buy higher quality beans.
But, I’m concerned this is going to get harder and harder for you in the future.
Climate change is making coffee taste worse while also pushing farmers into financial hardship.
In this episode we explore how genetic development can produce a coffee tree that might save the day. Is there a wild coffee tree happily growing in the forests somewhere that could be our silver bullet? What about if we mix existing documented species together?
But, the big problem is that genetic research is slow, and farmers can’t wait around. So, in the second half, we learn how coffee farmers in Kenya are trying to fix the problem right now.
And I’m actually tentatively hopeful the beans you brew in the morning are not going to get worse. But, it all depends on you, me and the coffee industry making a couple of changes right now.
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Learn more about how Trabocca, this episode’s sponsor, works with coffee farmers: https://bit.ly/3Tjn8bV
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Find some of Alvans Mutero’s (https://bit.ly/3T0NHTy) and Thiriku’s (https://bit.ly/3CCxHQJ) coffee to taste for yourself
Learn more about cloning coffee plants on my other podcast, Adventures in Coffee - https://bit.ly/3EFBmzG
Want to listen to more documentary podcasts about coffee? Check out Filter Stories - https://bit.ly/3zb5vnO
Connect with my very knowledgeable guests:
Sarada Krishnan - LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/3rW9dwB) and Research Gate (https://bit.ly/3VvzDTq)
Aaron Davis - Kew Gardens (https://bit.ly/3CAicZg)
Hanna Neuschwander - LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/3MvW2Mi)
Bernard Gichimu - LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/3VrOIFJ)
Learn more about the coffee varieties discussed on this episode:
SL 28 - https://bit.ly/3MvNIw6
SL 34 - https://bit.ly/3rTX2QX
Ruiru 11 - https://bit.ly/3CXmDPf
Batian - https://bit.ly/3EEls8M
The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:
BWT Water and More - https://bit.ly/3EEpuxN
Marco Beverage Systems - https://bit.ly/3T2YDzY
Trabocca - https://bit.ly/3Tjn8bV
Eversys - https://bit.ly/3CBkp6X
Oatly - https://bit.ly/3exvlKS
Fiorenzato - https://bit.ly/3T3nmUQ