Seven new coffee species discovered

Dec 23, 2009 2 Replies

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"Seven wild species of coffee are among 290 new plants found by Kew Gardens botanists this year..."


We may have some *really* different coffees from Madagascar to look forward to in the not too distant future.


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That might take a while. First the plants need to be propagated and then test grown untill enough beans can be produced to see if it is worth growing as is on a production basis and then seeing what the results are for polinazation and optimal growing conditions.

It could be years before commercial viability is deturmined.

They're already growing in the wild. Kaldi didn't need to perform controlled experiments. He just went out and started picking. So, time to determine whether they taste good is measured anywhere from days to months. Whether they can produce enough to be profitable would depend on taste and expected harvest, which could be estimated by how many cherries appear on wild vs. cultivated varieties already in production.

Optimal would probably be conditions pretty close to where they were found... similar to where arabicas thrive.

Well, yeah. Years is "not too distant" in my book. It'd probably be into decades before I'd consider it "a while" in this context.

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