Coffea arabica

We will see what really pans out.

But, well, first of all, the hope is that the great Arabica coffees are still around.

And they can be still produced and commercially viable for hopefully as many people as possible to access.

Why is that hope? Well, my connections to the World Coffee Research, for example, and looking at their work is promising.

It can probably adapt to climate change a little bit better, but it's not a great, it's potentially not a great flavor experience.

And also it's a water thief.

It requires so much water compared to Arabica.

Yeah.

There's some fantastic stuff out there.

For me, where it gets a little bit muddied is like people say, it's almost as good as an Arabica.

No, it's not Arabica.

It's a different flavor profile.

It's a different category.

And then if you like it, you like it.

If you don't, you don't.

And I mean, going back to one of the biggest changes from 20 years ago, what's this Arabica? Well, there's two types of coffee.

The environmental elements of sustainability have given us a timer.

We've got about 20 years of Arabica left.

This is what person after person after person comes on this podcast and tells me.

But then there are other layers to this that can accelerate that.

We were in a clear downtrend until the first week of June in terms of pricing.

And ever since, prices were up roughly 20% since then, Arabica prices.

There were two major things taking place since the first week of June.

One is that there has been wet weather in Brazil during the dry season, especially June and early July, and that led to a significant proportion of the cherries dropping to the floor.

Now, El Niño has a number of effects on coffee production.

I would say normally not a lot in Brazil, but it does create a lot of extra rainfall in the southern part of Brazil.

Usually it doesn't affect the coffee belt, but at the moment it is affecting the coffee belt, the Arabica coffee belt.

I talk about the... extra rainfall during the harvest in Brazil, now the harvest is done, but we do see a current rainfall higher than normal.

Just give us a background about, you know, what are the best beans that actually go into a good cup of coffee?

let's just get back to that basics of we'll say, we'll say Arabica coffee.

You know, we've got those two family groups of the varieties are either Arabica, which are considered the higher quality, sweeter coffees, and then there's the Robusta.

In Australia, we've only chosen Arabica to this date, although now some farmers are interested in a high quality and Robusta.

That's going to be an extra extension of the research coming up.

But then we talk about where we're growing it, the microclimate, How cool is it? What's the rainfall? What's the soil quality? Is it beautiful red volcanic soil? We'll bring out a richer coffee.

Because I'm thinking

Arabica, Liberica.

So now I just learned when studying for this interview that Liberica is about 1% of world coffee production, but roughly 87% of what Malaysia grows.

And for the most of the last century, it's been treated as filler.

Mm-hmm.

But there's also Arabica.

Arabica.

In the, in the, in the, w- you know, Eastern Uganda, Bugisu there.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and some far west there, they have Arabica.

But here we're talking about Robusta.

So Robusta is a range between 12,000 to 14, 15,000 per kg.

So that's really cool.

Going back to 2013, you launched the world's first specialty-grade Robusta coffee in a market that was completely dominated by Arabica.

Can you walk us through that decision? What did you see that everyone else was missing? And how did the industry react when you went against the grain?

Yeah, so I guess we were coming into an industry really as outsiders because we had...

But beyond that, in terms of taste profile, the Robusta bean had notes of walnuts and chocolate.

And it had more body, so it would punch through the milk more in what is for the majority of market a product you consume with the milk or these days an alternative milk.

And so we thought, we can't find a good reason why this bean isn't being served and why it's all about 100% Arabica.

And surely if you can have all of these qualities, with the same processing and treatment that you have for a fine Arabica, so you don't have the defect beans, you don't have the moldy beans, you don't use lots of pesticides, then the results might be amazing.

I'm Julie Morgan.

Coffee prices are higher again just in time for PSL season, with Arabica futures soaring to their highest level in more than six months.

The latest move higher reflects growing concerns about near-term supplies of premium coffee beans, particularly from Brazil, even as a larger harvest is expected later in the season.

Prices have also remained under pressure following the devastating earthquake in Colombia earlier this month.

The Super El Nino forecast is also something else to look out for.

It is considered a material upside risk for coffee prices, especially Robusta later this year, and potentially Arabica next year.

Meanwhile, today is the official kickoff of pumpkin spice latte season at Starbucks, better known as PSL.

Other companies and chains have already gotten in on the pumpkin action, launching their fall menus at least a week before Starbucks.