Coffea arabica

I'm learning a lot of

words like that these days.

I

haven't learned how to use them yet.

So as a quick intro, there is thousands of different types of coffee species and only a handful are commercially used.

And so Arabica and Robusta are the main ones.

But now there has been lots of attention to other species with the lens of like climate change and climate resilience.

And so you did a paper recently.

Overshot it with the thousands.

Just by zero, just by zero, not much.

So there are, yeah, 124 recognized coffee species at the moment, but only two, as you rightly stated, Robusta and Arabica are widely commercialized.

So 99% of the coffee supply chain is made up of those two species.

An economics graduate from UP, University of the Philippines Diliman, Sherry has also trained internationally in Canada and Italy.

She is a Q processing professional, an SEA Q Arabica and Robusta instructor, a CQI Lifetime Awardee, and the CQI or Coffee Quality Institute Educator of the Year for 2025.

She also founded Barista and Coffee Academy of Asia.

She is the former chair of the technical working group of the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition and an international coffee competition judge.

Well, pareho naman tidesheet, no? We're really contributing our time in trying to help our industry grow.

I guess right now, the opportunity still is in the fact that we have four varieties in the Philippines.

That is an opportunity for us to explore the four varieties, the Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa.

Mm-hmm.

But coffee stocks held in exchange warehouses have fallen to their lowest level since nineteen ninety-nine.

That has helped keep Arabica prices near three US dollars and fifty cents a pound.

Analysts say prices may continue swinging unless those reserves recover.

Much of the additional coffee could instead enter private inventories, leaving roasters and consumers exposed to price fluctuations.

Global A- uh, Arab- Arabica? Ar-

Ar- u- uh, say Ara- Arabic.

Arab- Arabic? Y- yeah, okay.

Okay, what-

So they have a bunch of different varieties.

This is the Pacamara variety and, um, I think some of that has to do with like heritage of the plants, right? So you have a bunch of different ones now, but the most common is like Arabica.

You've got Robusta.

You've got this Pacamara.

We know coffee.

It comes from our knowledge and passion, from our commitment to sourcing 100% Arabica beans from all around the world.

For decades that's been the promise on premium coffee products in Australian supermarkets.

But as the price of coffee beans surged to record highs, some major brands have quietly changed how they describe what's inside.

Some products that once proudly advertised themselves as 100% Arabica are now simply labeled coffee or contain a blend of Arabica and the cheaper Robusta bean.

It's legal and Robusta isn't necessarily a bad coffee but some consumers are asking why they weren't told more clearly when the recipe changed.

Arabica has always been the the preferred high-quality bean.

Jason Liljenstein runs a special roastery and cafe in Toowoomba.

Because in this episode, we're gonna talk about, how do we use data to help us understand the depths of a problem? Now, the reason I wanna talk about Robusta is because, Oscar, right now, there's a interesting argument going on in the coffee industry where two groups of scientists are making different points about Robusta.

So, as you know from, as someone who listens to the podcast, we've spoken to many people on here that are saying how Ra- how Arabica is going away.

You know, Arabica is going to struggle to adapt to the changes in climate, and to adapt to different environmental factors that are going on, and a lot of people are saying that Robusta could be the replacement of that.

While, uh, other people are saying, "No, Robusta isn't the right replacement for Arabica because it is a water thief," right? It requires so much water that given the challenges that we're actually facing, this is a very serious problem, that it w- is not the right varietal to look at, or the, the, it is not the right, um, uh-

Tiff

... species for us to be looking at as a solution to this problem.