A Big Week for the Coffee Cultivar Nerd
Basically nobody should be surprised that I am a self-confessed cultivar nerd. I got turned on to cultivated varieties (cultivars for short) like almost everyone does- by reading a seed catalog and marveling at the myriad varieties of tomatoes. Over the years, my passion has grown- I did a little series on especially compelling food cultivars last year on this blog, and the year before I indulged both my cultivar and Star Wars enthusiasms with the quiz game “Coffee Variety or Star Wars Character?”. I am perhaps most well known in coffee for a short film we did while I was at Counter Culture on coffee varieties.
I mention all this only to underscore how happy I am this week. We passed a huge milestone as the largest shipment yet of plants for the World Coffee Research International Multi Location Variety Trial (IMLVT) left the U.S. to be planted at farms all over the world.
For a coffee cultivar geek, this is huge huge huge. Cultivar knowledge in the coffee industry- in other words, which varieties produce quality coffee under what conditions, which varieties are susceptible to disease in which climates, etc etc.- is largely what I would call ‘folk-knowledge’; i.e. things we learn from our colleagues and repeat to others. There has been some great research done by origin-country organizations, but these investigations are usually at the single-country level.There has never been a large scale, international, scientifically rigorous coffee variety trial- until now. These plants will grow and produce fruit in the various microclimates of the 60 farms in 19 countries where the trials will take place. A total of 35 varieties, including old-school traditional varieties like Mundo Nuovo and Catuai, famous-for-quality varieties like Geisha and SL-28, and new hybrids from Colombia and Nicaragua will be part of the study. Some of this research will be focused on the capacity of these various cultivars to produce quality coffee, along the lines of Michael Sheridan’s pioneering research in Colombia. However, we can go far beyond that: since the locations of the farms have been especially selected to reflect a variety of climates, altitudes, and temperatures, the trial gives us the opportunity to see which cultivars perform best in warmer conditions- a critical sustainability issue as the climate changes. Drought tolerance, another key sustainability issue as water supplies become less reliable, can also be evaluated.
It is very likely that some of our assumptions about coffee varieties- like, for example, which cultivars produce specific flavors- will be challenged. Others may be confirmed. We’ll undoubtedly learn some things we haven’t yet predicted. But, most importantly, for the first time ever we will have really good, broad, global data to base our research on. This is an essential, fundamental early step in quality-oriented coffee research, and it’s a major step forward. This collected data will be critical before taking the next step- higher quality, more climate-tolerant, better producing, disease-resistant coffee varieties, which have the flavor characteristics of the cultivars we know and love in coffee.
All this was made possible by the women, men, and companies who have collaborated on and supported World Coffee Research. If you’re reading this, you can participate too, by joining the effort.
😍🎉🎊🙌🏻










