Post-Arabica coffee
Arabica beans dominate the specialty coffee market, but the future is shaping up to be less reliant on the species – a fortuitous shift, as climate change threatens the bean consumers favour. Now, thanks to the cultivation of new wild and rediscovered heirloom species, coffee outside the Arabica norm will become more widely available.
”Innovators are exploring a range of heirloom coffee species and their varietals to help ease the plight of the climate-threatened Arabica," said Tom Gatehouse, Food & Drink Strategist at WGSN. "Robusta is a particularly strong candidate, with the high caffeine bean making waves as part of the blossoming Vietnamese coffee scene in the US. Specialty and single-origin iterations are continuing to emerge, as well as globally inspired Robusta formats to pique customer interest.”
GettyImages/Jonathan Knowles
