Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/659497
THE PACKAGE WAS BEAUTIFUL—an old-timey wooden packing crate that barely fit in my lap. I slid the top off, and inhaled the scent of roasted coffee and burlap. Inside were nine small tins, cradled in jute, each labeled with the name of a different coffee variety: Pacamara, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Caturra. It was the first time I was going to be able to taste coffee varieties grown side by side on the same farm. So many things have an impact on coffee flavor—how a coffee was grown, weather and altitude and shade, everything it experiences after leaving the tree (processing, drying, milling, storage, transport, roasting, brewing, and so on)— that it can be hard to determine why coffee tastes the way it does. Ultimately, though, coffee, like anything else we eat or drink, tastes the way it does because locked inside the bean is a molecular and genetic code that determines what we experience. The flavors, aromas, and textures we love originate in the seed's genes, which determine what flavor-producing chemicals the coffee cherry can make. Like steel scaffolding is the foundation on which a skyscraper is able to reach toward the sky, coffee's genetics are the foundation of flavor. C o f f e e Coffee G e n e t i c s Genetics C o f f e e Coffee G e n e t i c s Genetics H o w a l a c k o f g e n o m i c d i v e r s i t y e n d a n g e r s t h e f u t u r e o f c o f f e e How a lack of genomic diversity endangers the future of coffee A r t i c l e b y H a n n a N e u s c h w a n d e r Article by Hanna Neuschwander • I l l u s t r a t i o n s b y G r e t a R o m e l f a n g e r Illustrations by Greta Romelfanger 83 www.baristamagazine.com