Australia, I love you, you know I love you, but some of yโall need to be on a daily regimen of high-dose chill pills.
Case in point: a recent article in The Guardian examines how World Coffee Research is planting 35 different coffee varieties in 23 countries to see how they perform in different climates. WCRโs 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 whatโs the headline for this article? โThe end of coffee: could Australia save the world’s beans?โ And the lede line? โClimate change may devastate the globeโs major coffee-growing regions through extreme weather events โ but Australia could be the solution.โ
Wut?
If that makes you not want to read the article, I get it, Iโm right there with you. But I did anyway because, yโknow, itโs my job. The article includes such very Australian assertions like how this trial may be โAustraliaโs most significant contribution to coffeeย since the flat whiteโ (a drink created in New Zealand). But it does somehow keep from patting itself on the back for coming up with the American invention of avocado toast, which I guess counts as restraint these days.
The articleโs argument in favor of Australiaโs 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 donโt exist in Australia, a country that doesnโt currently produce in any marked quantities the thing these two blights feed upon.
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 โincreasingly difficultโ conditions she is facing.
โIn the past we had fabulous conditions, a lovely microclimate for coffee,โ she says. โIt used to look rainforest-y around here, now itโs very sparse. It has been a gradual change โ where once weโd be getting two metres of rainfall, [across 2018] we had less than one.
โOur crop actually didnโt happen this time, we had overripe cherries and completely green cherries, flowers on the tree โ not what we want. So we decided to strip the trees and get them ready for next year.โ
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.
Now, Iโm not wishing any sort of ill on any Australian coffee farmers nor am I saying that we shouldnโt 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.
Australia, you have some of the best coffee cities in the entire world, itโs 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. Iโve got nothing but love for you (and maybe a smarmy tone from time to time). All Iโm saying is, just relax. The rumors of you saving coffee have been greatly exaggerated.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.