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Coffee in Crisis

bbc.com

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Re: Coffee in Crisis

#41

Post by jcadam »

DanBC wrote: post #30
freels wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, a lot of this caffeine is sold to soda makers as a byproduct of the decaffeination process used on coffee beans. Does this mean the end of soda as well?

I'd love a good cola that has no caffiene. (Although I also don't want it to have sugar either.) There's a niche in the market for somethig that tastes nice, is cold, isn't full of sugar and is not caffeinated.

Diet Rite is my cola of choice. No Caffeine, sweetened with sucralose instead of aspartame. They could use some help with their product packaging, it looks a lot like generic/store-brand soda :)

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#42

Post by debacle »

yellowapple wrote: post #32
DarkTree wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does seem like the article may have conveniently evaded that news. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a looming threat to the coffee supply. The fact that Brazil may have an exceptionally good year, only means that it is likely to have a less-exceptional year after that, due to regression to the mean. If the climate does start to negatively impact the more tertiary coffee growing regions, Brazil will not be ab…

> The fact that Brazil may have an exceptionally good year, only means that it is likely to have a less-exceptional year after that, due to regression to the mean. Isn't that a Monte Carlo fallacy? One outcome in a sequence of tests does not mean that others are more likely in the future. If you flip a coin and get 10 heads in a row, your likelihood of getting a tails on the next flip (assuming a perfectly-balanced c…

> If you flip a coin and get 10 heads in a row, your likelihood of getting a tails on the next flip (assuming a perfectly-balanced coin) is still 50%.

If you flip a FAIR coin, your odds are still 50%. If I flip a coin and get heads 10 times in a row, I'm betting heads for that 11th flip.

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#43

Post by sosborn »

DanBC wrote: post #30
freels wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, a lot of this caffeine is sold to soda makers as a byproduct of the decaffeination process used on coffee beans. Does this mean the end of soda as well?

I'd love a good cola that has no caffiene. (Although I also don't want it to have sugar either.) There's a niche in the market for somethig that tastes nice, is cold, isn't full of sugar and is not caffeinated.

> There's a niche in the market for somethig that tastes nice, is cold, isn't full of sugar and is not caffeinated.

Ice water?

(and I'm saying this as a cola enthusiast)

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#44

Post by strictnein »

refurb wrote: post #31
strictnein wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To answer your question: yes, we already create synthetic caffeine. It's widely used in soda, energy drinks, etc.

How do you know the caffeine in soda and energy drinks is synthetic? Why not just use the leftover caffeine from decaffeination of coffee?

Synthetic is cheaper.

> "But most of the caffeine used in soft drinks is actually synthetically produced in Chinese pharmaceutical plants."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/13/289750754/wak...

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#45

Post by strictnein »

freels wrote: post #29
strictnein wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To answer your question: yes, we already create synthetic caffeine. It's widely used in soda, energy drinks, etc.

From what I understand, a lot of this caffeine is sold to soda makers as a byproduct of the decaffeination process used on coffee beans. Does this mean the end of soda as well?

> "But most of the caffeine used in soft drinks is actually synthetically produced in Chinese pharmaceutical plants."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/03/13/289750754/wak...

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#46

Post by icegreentea »

DanBC wrote: post #30
freels wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, a lot of this caffeine is sold to soda makers as a byproduct of the decaffeination process used on coffee beans. Does this mean the end of soda as well?

I'd love a good cola that has no caffiene. (Although I also don't want it to have sugar either.) There's a niche in the market for somethig that tastes nice, is cold, isn't full of sugar and is not caffeinated.

What do you mean by 'good cola'? Coca-Cola has caffeine free variants of both Diet Coke and Coke Zero. Up here in Canada you can usually find them at major supermarket chains. If by good you mean not Coca-Cola or Pepsi... well then ya, there probably aren't many choices.

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#47

Post by yellowapple »

debacle wrote: post #42
yellowapple wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fact that Brazil may have an exceptionally good year, only means that it is likely to have a less-exceptional year after that, due to regression to the mean. Isn't that a Monte Carlo fallacy? One outcome in a sequence of tests does not mean that others are more likely in the future. If you flip a coin and get 10 heads in a row, your likelihood of getting a tails on the next flip (assuming a perfectly-balanced c…

> If you flip a coin and get 10 heads in a row, your likelihood of getting a tails on the next flip (assuming a perfectly-balanced coin) is still 50%. If you flip a FAIR coin, your odds are still 50%. If I flip a coin and get heads 10 times in a row, I'm betting heads for that 11th flip.

Aight, you got me there :)

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#48

Post by TheCoelacanth »

> For one thing, we can expect coffee to become more of a luxury, with prices shooting up by around 25% by 2050 according to Bunn’s calculations

A 25% rise in price over 35 years qualifies as a crisis now?

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#49

Post by serve_yay »

a3n wrote: post #2

This page made my laptop scream. It never stopped trying to load something. I run ABP, perhaps that's the "fault?" I also tried to find a sensible place to point that out to the BBC, but nothing was obviously (to me) the right place.

I wish every HN link had a separate comments section where people bitch about the page the news was served on.

Re: Coffee in Crisis

#50

Post by mattlutze »

unprepare wrote: post #22
VeejayRampay wrote: post #3

Isn't there a way to produce synthetic caffeine? I mean, there's been a shift recently for nicotine and the market for e-cigs, I'm sure we can somehow find a way to do the same for caffeine.

Are we producing synthetic nicotine for e-cigs? I am of the understanding that we currently produce liquid nicotine from tobacco leaves, and use the liquid nicotine for electronic cigarettes. We certainly can already produce caffeine independently of producing coffee, and while that may be a major reason for coffee production, i doubt many coffee drinkers would be satiated with a caffeine pill every morning instead o…

If we were to replace coffee beans, we wouldn't just offer them a No-Doze; I imagine you develop coffee flavors that could be used to reproduce the actual beverage. No reason for instant coffee to ever have been coffee beans in the first place if you can do the flavors right.

Or, the culture just adjusts to a different caffeine-infused hot drink.

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