Post by barb43 on Apr 16, 2024 3:39:38 GMT
The Coffee Apocalypse
This is a long, very interesting article with agricultural information on growing "real" coffee, Coffea arabica—the plant species most commonly cultivated for drinking; some history of coffee and how, "At many times in the past, coffee has been out of reach for most people, so they found cheaper, albeit caffeine-free, alternatives."
Coffee alternatives, past and present, are discussed in detail. The comparison between 'coffee and coffee alternatives' and 'meat and meat alternatives' begin to come up in the article also.
David Klingen, Northern Wonder’s CEO, Klingen emphasized that he and his colleagues,
Sustainability, life cycle analysis, and yields of the new coffee alternatives are discussed at length in the article. The use of "upcycled agricultural waste items, such as date pits" are included in the discussion of sustainability.
The article closes with a return to considering this:
slate.com/human-interest/2024/04/coffee-cup-best-bean-brand-climate.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
Are you ready for coffee made from chickpeas? Soon, you may not have a choice.
When Henri Kunz was growing up in West Germany in the 1980s, he used to drink an instant coffee substitute called Caro, a blend of barley, chicory root, and rye roasted to approximate the deep color and invigorating flavor of real coffee. “We kids drank it,” Kunz remembered recently. “It had no caffeine, but it tasted like coffee.”
As an adult, Kunz loves real coffee. But he also believes that its days are numbered. Climate change is expected to shift the areas where coffee can grow, with some researchers estimating that the most suitable land for coffee will shrink by more than half by 2050 and that hotter temperatures will make the plants more vulnerable to pests, blight, and other threats. At the same time, demand for coffee is growing, as upwardly mobile people in traditionally tea-drinking countries in Asia develop a taste for java.
Small farmers could face crop failures just as millions of new people develop a daily habit, potentially sending coffee prices soaring to levels that only the wealthy will be able to afford.
To stave off the looming threats, some agricultural scientists are hard at work breeding climate-resilient, high-yield varieties of coffee. Kunz, the founder and chair of a “flavor engineering” company called Stem, thinks he can solve many of these problems by growing coffee cells in a laboratory instead of on a tree. A number of other entrepreneurs are taking a look at coffee substitutes of yore, like the barley beverage Kunz grew up drinking, with the aim of using sustainable ingredients to solve coffee’s environmental problems—and adding caffeine to reproduce its signature jolt.
A crop of startups, with names like Atomo, Northern Wonder, and Prefer, is calling this category of throwbacks “beanless coffee,” even though in some cases their products contain legumes. Beanless coffee “gives you that legendary coffee taste and all the morning pick-me-up you crave, while also leaving you proud that you’re doing your part to help unf—k the planet,” as the San-Francisco-based beanless coffee company Minus puts it. But it’s unclear whether coffee drinkers—deeply attached to the drink’s particular, ineffable taste and aroma—will embrace beanless varieties voluntarily, or only after the coming climate-induced coffee apocalypse forces their hand.
When Henri Kunz was growing up in West Germany in the 1980s, he used to drink an instant coffee substitute called Caro, a blend of barley, chicory root, and rye roasted to approximate the deep color and invigorating flavor of real coffee. “We kids drank it,” Kunz remembered recently. “It had no caffeine, but it tasted like coffee.”
As an adult, Kunz loves real coffee. But he also believes that its days are numbered. Climate change is expected to shift the areas where coffee can grow, with some researchers estimating that the most suitable land for coffee will shrink by more than half by 2050 and that hotter temperatures will make the plants more vulnerable to pests, blight, and other threats. At the same time, demand for coffee is growing, as upwardly mobile people in traditionally tea-drinking countries in Asia develop a taste for java.
Small farmers could face crop failures just as millions of new people develop a daily habit, potentially sending coffee prices soaring to levels that only the wealthy will be able to afford.
To stave off the looming threats, some agricultural scientists are hard at work breeding climate-resilient, high-yield varieties of coffee. Kunz, the founder and chair of a “flavor engineering” company called Stem, thinks he can solve many of these problems by growing coffee cells in a laboratory instead of on a tree. A number of other entrepreneurs are taking a look at coffee substitutes of yore, like the barley beverage Kunz grew up drinking, with the aim of using sustainable ingredients to solve coffee’s environmental problems—and adding caffeine to reproduce its signature jolt.
A crop of startups, with names like Atomo, Northern Wonder, and Prefer, is calling this category of throwbacks “beanless coffee,” even though in some cases their products contain legumes. Beanless coffee “gives you that legendary coffee taste and all the morning pick-me-up you crave, while also leaving you proud that you’re doing your part to help unf—k the planet,” as the San-Francisco-based beanless coffee company Minus puts it. But it’s unclear whether coffee drinkers—deeply attached to the drink’s particular, ineffable taste and aroma—will embrace beanless varieties voluntarily, or only after the coming climate-induced coffee apocalypse forces their hand.
This is a long, very interesting article with agricultural information on growing "real" coffee, Coffea arabica—the plant species most commonly cultivated for drinking; some history of coffee and how, "At many times in the past, coffee has been out of reach for most people, so they found cheaper, albeit caffeine-free, alternatives."
Coffee alternatives, past and present, are discussed in detail. The comparison between 'coffee and coffee alternatives' and 'meat and meat alternatives' begin to come up in the article also.
David Klingen, Northern Wonder’s CEO, Klingen emphasized that he and his colleagues,
mapped out the attributes of various ingredients—bitterness, sweetness, smokiness, the ability to form a foam similar to the crema that crowns a shot of espresso—and tried to combine them in a way that produced a well-rounded coffee facsimile, then added caffeine.
By contrast, traditional coffee alternatives like chicory and barley brews have nothing to offer a caffeine addict; Atomo, Minus, Northern Wonder, and Prefer are promising a reliable daily fix.
“Coffee is a ritual and it’s a result,” said Andy Kleitsch, the CEO of Atomo. “And that’s what we’re replicating.”
By contrast, traditional coffee alternatives like chicory and barley brews have nothing to offer a caffeine addict; Atomo, Minus, Northern Wonder, and Prefer are promising a reliable daily fix.
“Coffee is a ritual and it’s a result,” said Andy Kleitsch, the CEO of Atomo. “And that’s what we’re replicating.”
Sustainability, life cycle analysis, and yields of the new coffee alternatives are discussed at length in the article. The use of "upcycled agricultural waste items, such as date pits" are included in the discussion of sustainability.
The article closes with a return to considering this:
The specter of plant-based meat and dairy looms large over the nascent beanless coffee industry. A slew of startups like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods hit the scene in the 2010s with products that they touted as convincing enough to be able to put animal agriculture out of business. But in recent years, these companies have faced declining sales in the face of concerns about health, taste, and price.
Jake Berber, the CEO and co-founder of Prefer, fears that something similar could happen to beanless coffee businesses. “My hope for everyone in the industry is to keep pushing out really delicious products that people enjoy so that the whole industry of beanless coffee, bean-free coffee, can profit from that, and we can sort of help each other out,” he said.
Jake Berber, the CEO and co-founder of Prefer, fears that something similar could happen to beanless coffee businesses. “My hope for everyone in the industry is to keep pushing out really delicious products that people enjoy so that the whole industry of beanless coffee, bean-free coffee, can profit from that, and we can sort of help each other out,” he said.
slate.com/human-interest/2024/04/coffee-cup-best-bean-brand-climate.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
