19
submitted 2 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/world@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Brazil's Embrapa is trying to breed Robusta to have a taste profile more closely matching Arabica, whilst also resisting the heat better. Difficult challenge given Robusta tastes like burnt rubber.

[-] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

This is gonna be like the Gros Michel banana thing again isn't it - where decades from now almost none of the world's coffee will taste as good as it used to, and nobody quite knows why.

[-] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 2 months ago

Very likely, yes

[-] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I doubt because in that case we do have seeds of the plant and it can be put in a greenhouse, generally the situation is way different, i'il explain myself better:

Gran michele is now extinct because of how it was cultivated; In practice, to avoid having seeds in the fruit, production was carried out using cuttings, so practically all Gran Michele plants were clones of a group of other Gran Michele plants, meaning that genetic mutations never developed. Since none of them had developed a mutation capable of resisting a fungus (the name of which I cannot remember), they ALL died and we simply didn't had seeds

[-] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You can still buy the Gros Michel banana nowadays. It's not extinct, but is a rare and expensive speciality, rather than the common type of banana we see on the shelves like it used to be.

$37 USD per banana, on this particular site

If climate change makes growing Arabica coffee commercially non-viable at scale and all the growers move to hardier alternatives, then Arabica will still exist - absolutely - but instead of being the coffee you can drink every day it will also become a rare and expensive speciality, just like the banana.

[-] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Quote did not age well.

[-] arrow74@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

Wow that's gone up me and a few coworkers ordered a box a couple of years ago and it was like $9 per banana.

They were good, I see the appeal of the variety, but they were not $9 banana good. Let alone $37 banana good.

[-] DivineDev@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

Robusta tastes like burnt rubber

I will not accept this baseless slander! Vietnamese coffee (which is basically always robusta) mixed with sweetened condensed milk is the best coffee known to man and I will allow no different opinion.

[-] kadu@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 2 months ago

with sweetened condensed milk

To be fair, it's almost impossible to screw up condensed milk, it always tastes good.

[-] ugandan_airways@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 months ago

I’ve been to Vietnam several times, and their coffee is basically crack. I couldn't stop drinking it.

this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2026
19 points (95.2% liked)

World News

55768 readers
143 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS