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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Find some of Alvans Mutero’s and Thiriku’s coffee to taste for yourself
Learn more about cloning coffee plants on my other podcast, Adventures in Coffee
Want to listen to more documentary podcasts about coffee? Check out Filter Stories
Connect with my very knowledgeable guests:
Sarada Krishnan - LinkedIn and Research Gate
Aaron Davis - Kew Gardens
Hanna Neuschwander - LinkedIn
Bernard Gichimu - LinkedIn
Learn more about the coffee varieties discussed on this episode:
SL 28
SL 34
Ruiru 11
Batian
The Science of Coffee is made possible by these leading coffee organisations:
BWT Water and More
Marco Beverage Systems
Trabocca
Eversys
Oatly
Fiorenzato
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