World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

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World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

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World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

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World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

minimum dose size?

Jan 31, 2024 |

I use the Hario switch to brew my coffee and am trying to reduce my caffeine consumption. Hence I would like to brew smaller cups of coffee. I am currently using 10g of coffee with 160g of water. (1:16 Ratio) I am wondering if there is a minimum amount of coffee...

World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

Called Innovea, the network will aim to secure long-term supplies of coffee and improve climate resilience through breeding.

BY CHRIS RYAN
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE

Photos courtesy of World Coffee Research

Last month, during the Sintercafe coffee expo in Costa Rica, industry nonprofit World Coffee Research (WCR) made an announcement with much potential to impact coffee’s future for the better.

The news: WCR has launched Innovea, a global breeding network of nine countries that will “transform global coffee breeding and accelerate the pace of genetic improvement,” per a press release from WCR. They chose the Innovea name by combining “innovation” with Coffea, the plant name of the coffee species, so the name loosely translates to “coffee innovation.”

“Coffee faces a crisis of innovation that makes the industry’s sustainability, quality, and supply assurance goals impossible to achieve if we stay on the path we are on,” says WCR CEO Dr. Jennifer (Vern) Long in the press release. “But as we have seen with COVID-19, incredible solutions to urgent, global problems are made possible with scientific collaboration.”

Close up of a man's hands. He holds coffee flowers gently. The petals are small, long and white, on a long skinny green stalk. The flowers grow in small clusters in a circle around the stem at intervals.
Collecting pollen from male flowers to make cross-pollinations to generate new plants. The Innovea network will aim to accelerate the pace of genetic improvements in coffee.

‘Coopetition’ Not Competition

Collaboration is indeed the name of the game for the Innovea network. Dr. George Kotch, WCR’s former research director, has decades of experience managing global breeding programs. He joined WCR in 2020 and knew he faced a challenge in shaping the new network: Coffee-producing countries are competing with one another, and asking them to collaborate on a breeding network is not an easy sell.

The resulting solution is a “coopetition” model—which Dr. Kotch developed using his experience with other commodities—that allows producing countries to collaborate on breeding but remain competitive overall. “We listened really carefully to our partners who communicated this reality that they face, which is that scientific collaboration sounds like a great aspiration, but it’s not always a realistic opportunity for them,” Dr. Long says in an interview with Barista Magazine Online. “And so this model is really designed to drive value for countries but also allow them to be competitive.”

The same man's hands, putting something in a plastic sample vial with a kind of Q-tip implement.
Creating new crosses through hand-pollination at WCR’s Flor Amarilla Research Farm in El Salvador. Innovea will seek to create new and unique genetic combinations that have not been seen before in coffee.

So what will the new network offer participating countries? According to the WCR press release, the network will give them “unrestricted access to new genetic materials, training in modern breeding approaches, and shared tools while also connecting researchers across national boundaries to achieve results that would be impossible for programs working in isolation.”

Fostering Opportunities

The opportunities afforded by the network may be transformative for producing countries. “The network brings together a wide diversity of high-performing varieties from Africa, Asia, and the Americas that have never been bred together before,” says Dr. Senthil Kumar, director of research at the Central Coffee Research Institute (CCRI), in the press release. “India is enthusiastic about the opportunities this network provides for us to develop varieties that address farmers’ needs and to ensure our success in achieving climate resilience.”

A group of people stand in a semicircle on a hill. There is a WCR banner in the background, trees on the outskirts of the hill, and more hills behind.
Members of WCR’s board of directors, guests, and researchers from the nine invited participating countries at the site of the Innovea breeding factory at CATIE in Costa Rica.

The new network will strengthen not just coffee producers, of course. The whole coffee supply chain stands to benefit from improved varieties—including specialty-coffee roasters, whose businesses depend on reliable supplies of high-quality coffee. James McLaughlin, president and CEO of Chicago-based Intelligentsia Coffee and the current vice chair of WCR’s board, says, “I think that Innovea is the single most exciting thing happening in coffee right now. We as an industry have under-invested in coffee agricultural research, and the threats that our industry is facing with climate change are really grave.” With the new network, James explains, “I believe we’re going to produce varieties that are next level in terms of quality, productivity, and climate resistance.”

Though the network is now in motion, the results will not be immediate, as breeding programs take time. WCR estimates that some countries in the network could release new varieties as early as 2033, though most will take several more years.

You can find more about the new Innovea network here.

The post World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network appeared first on Barista Magazine Online.

World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

Perfect Little Beans

Chinmey Hill Coffee uses specialty-grade beans with zero primary defects (such as black beans or sour beans) and less than five secondary defects (such as broken beans). This is important because primary defects will greatly affect the taste of the coffee. Having zero defects allows the coffee to be the most optimal flavor.

Window for Optimal Flavor

Chimney Hill Coffee ships our coffee the same day it was roasted, so you will receive it before it enters the window of optimal flavor.  This means you’ll never miss the opportunity to enjoy the coffee’s peak flavor.

Coffee Ratings

Coffee undergoes many scoring processes by professionals who achieved their Q Grader certification. Coffee is first graded when it’s green. If there are defects the coffee is determined to be “not-specialty grade”. For those coffees that pass green grading, they are sample roasted and cupped. (Cupping is the official term for critically tasting and scoring coffees. The official cupping form is standard worldwide, and where the 100-point scoring system comes from.) A coffee’s dry fragrance, wet aroma, flavor, aftertaste, body, acidity, balance, and overall impression are taken into consideration while uniformity issues and defects, will lower the overall score.

Specialty Coffee

Specialty coffee, coined by Erna Knutsen in 1974, refers to a coffee that receives a quality grading score of 80 percent or higher. While “premium” or “gourmet” seem like they’re synonymous with “specialty,” they simply are marketing terms with no defined standards. Specialty coffees are grown in specific and ideal micro-climates, and have distinctive and unique flavor profiles, with little to no defects.

Third-Wave Coffee

We’re currently in the third wave of coffee. The first wave of American coffee put pre-ground, vacuum-sealed cans in kitchens across America. The second wave started with the late ‘60s introduction of Peet’s coffee (by Alfred Peet) through the proliferation of Starbucks. The third wave of coffee focuses on origin transparency, nuanced flavors, and artisan roasting. The term “third wave” is synonymous with specialty coffee.

World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

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