Lab-Grown Coffee, Infused Coffee, and Coffee Breeding

• Is this the future of Coffee?

  By Stuart Ritson for Caffeine Mag

  “Scientists in Finland recently recreated coffee in a lab, using just a coffee plant and equipment that could replicate cells on a massive level. ‘‘Artificial coffee’ is about combining flavours,’ the leader of this scientific team, Heiko Rischer, tells me. ‘What we are doing is 100% coffee, just made in a different way.’”

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• Additive Fermentation: “Infused” Coffee Is Gaining Popularity—and Sparking Industry Debate

  By Chris Kornman for Roast Magazine

  “Fermentation for coffee has long been a simple matter of practicality—processors harnessed the power of bacteria and yeasts to extract the coffee seed from its fruit. It wasn’t viewed as a quality additive process; it was risk mitigation—reducing the amount of material separating us from the green bean, thereby reducing processing risk and improving consistency. However, the past 10 years or so have proven to the specialty industry that fermentation also has potential to be additive. One trend among some coffee professionals is to take that ‘additive’ principle as literally as possible by co-fermenting—or infusing—coffee pulp or whole coffee fruit with extra ingredients.”

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• World Coffee Research Launches Global Coffee Breeding Network

  By Chris Ryan for Barista Magazine

  “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.”

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