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Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#91

Post by squircle »

spookie wrote: post #76
nkozyra wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe the answer is for someone to work on boosting natural caffeine levels in yaupon holly tea The problem isn't getting caffeine, though. You can buy a tub of 200mg caffeine pills for $3. People like coffee. Substituting coffee isn't just a matter of caffeine for drinkers.

Yeah, pretty much. I drink tea from time to time, but I still prefer coffee. I don't know, feels more earthy or fuller? I also like the smell better.

You might enjoy roasted dandelion root tea. The taste is about as earthy as it gets. Also, as a bitter herb it's great for digestion.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#92

Post by jddj »

djha-skin wrote: post #5

Caffeine production is likely difficult in the face of a drier climate. Caffeine is present in the plant as a pesticide. Insects are a much bigger problem in wet climates over dry. Having grown up in a wet climate (Chicago) but now living in a dry one (Utah) I can say that finding a droubt tolerant species which concerns itself with pesticide production may be difficult. The same water which coffee relies on is the s…

> finding a droubt tolerant species which concerns itself with pesticide production may be difficult

Tobacco, no?

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#93

Post by doodlebugging »

ghc wrote: post #89
doodlebugging wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that prickly ash? Like a toothache tree with all the sharp spikes on the trunk? It looks like sancho is the berry produced by the tree. The leaves look similar to our toothache tree or Hercules Club as some call it. I know that the bark here in NAmerica has been used as a local anesthetic for a long time. It produces a tingly, numbing sensation when it becomes wet. I have used the bark to numb gums or throat pain.…

Different tree, same genus. I'm not sure if all species (of 250+) in the genus have edible fruit, but the berries of several Asian species are harvested for spices, including Sichuan Peppercorns, which are made from the dried berries. I would bet that the flavor (citrusy, with a numbing effect) is similar among all the species, but varies in strength and pungency. I'm not sure if I would bet that any species is safe…

I'll need to look into the ways the tree was used by Native Americans and early settlers. I have known about the use of the bark for decades but don't recall anything about other parts of the tree. Thanks for the information.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#94

Post by Loughla »

squircle wrote: post #91
spookie wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, pretty much. I drink tea from time to time, but I still prefer coffee. I don't know, feels more earthy or fuller? I also like the smell better.

You might enjoy roasted dandelion root tea. The taste is about as earthy as it gets. Also, as a bitter herb it's great for digestion.

It tastes nothing like coffee though. It tastes like other things that kind of taste like coffee, like chicory. They taste sort of like coffee and dandelion sort of tastes like them, so it's a little too removed.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#95

Post by vmwareuser-020 »

Liberica, which is already popularized in Malaysia, is another type of coffee that’s resistant to heat and droughts.

I’m introducing some plants to a rural community in Panama that had its Robusta crops ruined by the harsh summers we’ve experienced over the past couple of years.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#96

Post by Henchman21 »

inetknght wrote: post #84
Henchman21 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will not consume caffeine and tbh the rest of you need to slow down. Modern life runs on stimulants and caffeine is a whip at the back of the worker. I know this forum doesn’t give a damn about worker’s rights, but I do, and man I am tired of all this .

I also care about workers' rights. Stimulants are a problem, but I do not see stimulants as detrimental to workers' rights. I see stimulants as a problem for healthcare though. I know people who have heart problems that are exacerbated by stimulants. But that's not a problem for everyone -- just as diabetes or heart disease are prevalent, nor a problem for everyone, and nor are they detrimental to workers' rights.

When I heard the tale of how the coffee break came to be — created so workers wouldn’t need an afternoon break — I find myself unable to separate the coffee from that fact. It was a tool used by Capitalists to keep the workers working. Now its so prevalent that no one can see the original causes.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#97

Post by siffin »

ars wrote: post #59
rmah wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I read it, he's not denying the effects either. He's just saying that not everything bad that happens wrt climate and weather is due to "climate change". Sometimes, it's just variations, which have always happened.

These days everything is blamed on climate change. And when people point out natural variation, they get bashed. A recent example is the CA fires, there is zero evidence linking them to climate change - they did a study and found no effect - which of course was reported as "climate change to blame".

What are you talking about? The burden is on you to explain how manipulating the chemical makeup of the atmosphere DOESN'T have a direct impact, even at the tiniest levels (1ppm).

At the levels we're at now, CO2e imbalances definitely impact every single weather event on the planet to some degree, and you'd have to be delusional not to accept that.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#98

Post by thousand_nights »

chasil wrote: post #75
nkozyra wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe the answer is for someone to work on boosting natural caffeine levels in yaupon holly tea The problem isn't getting caffeine, though. You can buy a tub of 200mg caffeine pills for $3. People like coffee. Substituting coffee isn't just a matter of caffeine for drinkers.

As the article states, the taste is complex beyond our understanding. "When it comes to taste, coffee is amazingly complex. A single cup may contain up to 1,200 volatile compounds. Yet what you perceive in a cup depends on many things besides the plant’s genome: the environment in which it grew, the weather, the roast, the water used for brewing. Even the color of the cup matters. White makes coffee seem more intense…

tbh i drink a coffee in the morning every day, no sugar, i think it tastes objectively terrible, like bitter dirt, but it's hijacked my reward pathway in the same way that nicotine or ethanol does, that it makes me enjoy the taste somehow

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#99

Post by inetknght »

Henchman21 wrote: post #96
inetknght wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also care about workers' rights. Stimulants are a problem, but I do not see stimulants as detrimental to workers' rights. I see stimulants as a problem for healthcare though. I know people who have heart problems that are exacerbated by stimulants. But that's not a problem for everyone -- just as diabetes or heart disease are prevalent, nor a problem for everyone, and nor are they detrimental to workers' rights.

When I heard the tale of how the coffee break came to be — created so workers wouldn’t need an afternoon break — I find myself unable to separate the coffee from that fact. It was a tool used by Capitalists to keep the workers working . Now its so prevalent that no one can see the original causes.

> I find myself unable to separate the coffee from that fact

Well at least you admit it.

> Now its so prevalent that no one can see the original causes.

I know plenty of people who drink coffee without taking a break to do so. I know plenty of people who drink coffee and are more productive outside of work than people who do not drink coffee at all. I know plenty of employers who do not provide coffee breaks nor free coffee.

Moreover, if drinking coffee makes someone pleasant to be around while not-drinking coffee makes that same person un-pleasant to be around, then perhaps the productivity benefits and original causes aren't so important anymore.

Re: Coffea stenophylla: A forgotten bean that could save coffee from extinction

#100

Post by chrislongss »

thousand_nights wrote: post #98
chasil wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article states, the taste is complex beyond our understanding. "When it comes to taste, coffee is amazingly complex. A single cup may contain up to 1,200 volatile compounds. Yet what you perceive in a cup depends on many things besides the plant’s genome: the environment in which it grew, the weather, the roast, the water used for brewing. Even the color of the cup matters. White makes coffee seem more intense…

tbh i drink a coffee in the morning every day, no sugar, i think it tastes objectively terrible, like bitter dirt, but it's hijacked my reward pathway in the same way that nicotine or ethanol does, that it makes me enjoy the taste somehow

Just out of interest: do you notice any difference at all between different brands of coffee? I am with on the idea that coffee tastes awful, but despite that I still prefer certain brands that taste subjectively better.
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