{"id":1643,"date":"2019-01-10T07:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2019\/01\/10\/take-it-down-a-notch-australia\/"},"modified":"2019-01-10T07:00:18","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T17:00:18","slug":"take-it-down-a-notch-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/2019\/01\/10\/take-it-down-a-notch-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Take It Down A Notch, Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Australia, I love you, you know I love you, but some of y\u2019all need to be on a daily regimen of high-dose chill pills.<\/p>\n

Case in point: a recent article<\/a> in The Guardian examines how World Coffee Research<\/a> is planting 35 different coffee varieties in 23 countries to see how they perform in different climates. WCR\u2019s goal, according to the article, is to find potentially suitable new coffeelands to meet a growing demand all the while climate change shifts where coffee can be produced. Now, one of these 23 countries is Australia. So what\u2019s the headline for this article? \u201cThe end of coffee: could Australia save the world’s beans?\u201d And the lede line? \u201cClimate change may devastate the globe\u2019s major coffee-growing regions through extreme weather events \u2013 but Australia could be the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wut?<\/p>\n

If that makes you not want to read the article, I get it, I\u2019m right there with you. But I did anyway because, y\u2019know, it\u2019s my job. The article includes such very Australian assertions like how this trial may be \u201cAustralia\u2019s most significant contribution to coffee\u00a0since the flat white\u201d (a drink created in New Zealand<\/a>). But it does somehow keep from patting itself on the back for coming up with the American invention of avocado toast<\/a>, which I guess counts as restraint these days.<\/p>\n

The article\u2019s argument in favor of Australia\u2019s coffee savio(u)rdom points specifically to two things that the country lacks: coffee leaf rust and coffee cherry borers, two scourges to coffee in already established producing countries. Which is true, these things don\u2019t exist in Australia, a country that doesn\u2019t currently produce in any marked quantities the thing these two blights feed upon.<\/p>\n

But what of the 50 or so farmers in Australia currently growing coffee? Surely, they will be some sort of bellwether for this great white hype. One grower, Zeta Greely, describes the \u201cincreasingly difficult\u201d conditions she is facing.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIn the past we had fabulous conditions, a lovely microclimate for coffee,\u201d she says. \u201cIt used to look rainforest-y around here, now it\u2019s very sparse. It has been a gradual change \u2013 where once we\u2019d be getting two metres of rainfall, [across 2018] we had less than one.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur crop actually didn\u2019t happen this time, we had overripe cherries and completely green cherries, flowers on the tree \u2013 not what we want. So we decided to strip the trees and get them ready for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s almost as if Australia will face all the same problems with climate change that the rest of the world is poised to undergo.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m not wishing any sort of ill on any Australian coffee farmers nor am I saying that we shouldn\u2019t be exploring potentially new areas for production. In fact, I hope that coffee trees take in Australia and it becomes a thriving new origin. I also hope the coffee plants do well in the 22 other countries the WCR is currently researching, the ones that aren’t talking about saving coffee.<\/p>\n

Australia, you have some of the best coffee cities in the entire world, it\u2019s an undeniable fact and anyone who says otherwise is either delusional or bitter. A lot of what you do trickles out to the rest of the world and makes all of our coffee scenes better places. I\u2019ve got nothing but love for you (and maybe a smarmy tone from time to time). All I\u2019m saying is, just relax. The rumors of you saving coffee have been greatly exaggerated.<\/p>\n

Zac Cadwalader<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.\u00a0Read more Zac Cadwalader\u00a0on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Take It Down A Notch, Australia<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia, I love you, you know I love you, but some of y\u2019all need to be on a daily regimen of high-dose chill pills. Case in point: a recent article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[63,27,65,33,61,32,59,31,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}