Timothy Birdnow

Get ready folks; coffee prices are skyrocketing as arabica bean futures are soaring through the roof.

If you need some help opening your eyes in the morning you may want to invest in a pair of pliers - or a poster of Penelope Cruz in a string bikini. You won't be able to afford your cup of morning joe.

The reasons are legion - socialists in Brazil, distribution issues, drought, and monetary inflation all impact coffee, which is not grown in these United States (except Hawaii, and that largely as a specialty item). The threat of tariffs too has investors spooked.

We need to develop a coffee market here.

I am given to understand coffee likes hot climates BUT likes it as cool as possible without ever actually getting cold. It's largely grown in mountain regions in the Caribbean and in South America and Africa. The continental U.S. certainly has regions warm enough, notably Florida and Texas, but as of yet there is no REASON to experiment when coffee is so easily obtained from the great growing regions. That may change.

Florida is looking into establishing a coffee industry, for instance.

Texas is less blessed since it has a drier climate (coffee likes lots of rain) and Texas does get cold sometimes. Still, there is a pilot farm in Weslaco, Texas and should it prove successful more could follow.

Other places that might grow coffee are S. Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.

I suspect it is just like wine grapes. The conventional wisdom was wine grapes could only be grown in Europe thanks to harsh American winters and pests and fungi. But Americans wanted their own wine so we began experimenting, hybridizing grapes until we had American hybrids, grapes like Norton (Vitas Aestivalis) or Catawba, Niagara, Cayuga, Elvira. These are mostly gone now, having been replaced by French American hybrids like Seyval, Vidal, Vignoles, Traminette (well, that's a hybrid of Gewurztraminer and Seyval), Chambourcin, Chancellor etc. But Dr. Constance Frank, who had grown traditional wine grapes in Russia, bred grapes capable of growing here and now New York State is a big player in American wine, growing the classics - Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, etc.

The point is these grapes were engineered by people to thrive in climates not suited to them. There is no reason coffee cannot experience a similar thing.

And, as we all know, coffee tastes different from different regions. In wine it's called terroir, the marriage of soil, climate, aspect (sun and whatnot), water, etc. It's "the taste of the place". Coffee is like that too and there is no reason why American coffee could not be grown and it could not be unique and delicious.

With modern technology we have the ability to fix many problems that used to bedevil crop growers of bygone eras. We have frost protection technology. We have new, better ways to irrigate. We have chemicals to treat for pests and for molds and fungi. We can artificially do what happens naturally in Jamaica or Honduras or Brazil. Shoot; we can grow coffee in greenhouses if we want.

This actually may be a welcome development for the industry; it might open whole new coffee growing territory.

Tea is grown on an island off the coast of South Carolina now, so why not coffee? Why should America's beverage not be grown in America? The Gulf of America is the perfect place to grow our favorite beverage.

There are options. Caviar, for instance, is produced outside of Russia and the Caspian sea, although most people think of Beluga when they think of caviar. My home state of Missouri is the second largest caviar producer in the world, for instance, and it's highly regarded by even connoisseurs. Will it ever replace Russian caviar? No, but it provides an affordable, home grown caviar for Americans (if you like that sort of thing - I think caviar tastes horrid.)Missouri caviar is made from Paddlefish eggs, which have been declared an endangered species, so our industry is in big trouble now. On the other hand we had the largest international caviar smuggling ring in the world run out of a bait shop. Go figure.

At any rate I would like to see people start experimenting with coffee, to make varieties that can grow in the U.S. No reason we can't our own industry.

I once visited a coffee plantation in Jamaica. It looked like a weed on the side of the road, and the beans are covered in a sweet fruit which was given to children to suck on to remove the pulp! It grew in shaded areas. A more commercial approach (and more sanitary) is needed here.

Anyway it's going up and we either have to find a substitute or cut back our consumption.

Another gift from the Biden era.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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