Arabica has a full and mild taste, high acidity and a rich aromatic spectrum. Robusta has a more bitter, intense flavor due to its higher caffeine content and nutty aftertaste. Coffee lovers are well aware of the merits of the two varieties. It is no coincidence that they are the most popular in the world. And yet, in the coming decades, there is a good chance that they will be hard to find. Even if they are gone. The climate crisis is also running its course as rising temperatures, drought, water shortages, heavy rains and increasingly frequent hailstorms take their toll on coffee plantations. Arabica is extremely vulnerable to high temperatures, while robusta cannot withstand drought…

A study published a few weeks ago in the journal PLOS Climate and based on signs of climate change from 1980 to 2020 in coffee-producing countries concludes that the frequency of extreme events, especially since 2010, is showing an alarming acceleration that threatens crops. . It is no coincidence that in Vietnam, where almost 50% of the Robusta variety is produced, many farmers have already begun to switch to other, safer and more profitable crops: uprooting coffee trees and planting avocados and cashews. Of course, there are those who insist on investing in “clones” that seem more resilient to environmental threats, such as the TS5, named after the farmer who first raised it (Truong Son).

Luxembourgers come first.

Coffee: an eternal habit of millions of people around the planet, part of the culture of most nations. The most greedy were Europeans, and Luxembourgers with almost 10 kg per capita per year. They are followed by the Swedes with 6.6, the Danes with 3.9, the Swiss with 3.2 and the Greeks with 3 kg – according to new figures from Pricefox, which differ from others that have been published from time to time. However, the order is not so important. It cannot be denied that the total consumption in the European Union has already exceeded 3 million tons.

The future of the Greek market, which flourished in previous years, depends on the endurance of Arabica and Robusta.

Coffee is so loved, so familiar that it is taken for granted. However, it is not. And the projected decline in plantations, and therefore production – by 50% by 2050 – will not only disrupt our daily lives, but also cause shocks in the global economy. Greece will be no exception, as the corresponding turnover is 4 billion euros per year, and over the past decade, thousands of coffee houses have appeared in every area. The constant increase in cost affecting consumption and the reduction in production create an explosive … mixture. What is the future of these enterprises? What is the future of coffee?

“The boom in the coffee market was a consequence of the financial crisis of the late 2000s, when people who could lose their jobs and receive compensation believed that this was the easiest and most profitable profession in the world. Then countless cafes opened,” says Michalis Rizos, co-owner of Black Duck and Rizos Cafe. However, a lot has changed since then. “Firstly, there are not many stores in the market. Then the rate of return, which in good times was as high as 85%, plummeted: rents, labor costs, more than doubling of electricity bills, ever-increasing raw material prices made coffee … more bitter for entrepreneurs. Consider one more parameter: even delivery to major city centers is now paid by card. For those who have invested in “black”, this is an additional blow. Huge debts accumulate even in franchise stores of well-known chains. So, I predict an epidemic of “lockouts” in the coming years, long before the climate crisis threatens this business sector.

Back to frappe?

What if production really drops? Will there be reflexes in the market? “That’s the only thing you can be sure of,” Mr. Rizos replies. “We all do…exercises to be ready. If Arabica and Robusta seem to be the first victims, then we will definitely see alternatives: frappe will return strongly, herbal drinks and products with syrups will be released, and even more chemicals. The industry is very resourceful when it comes to securing its future…”

Ode to the sweetest habit

The coffee market is the backbone of the economy, but literature, like songwriting, makes no secret of its weakness: from Charles Bukowski, Roberto Bolagno and Virginia Woolf to Bob Dylan, Lina Nicolakopoulou and Nikos Papazoglou, to name a few. We asked three people in the arts to share their (love) relationship with coffee with K.

He opens mouths and hearts

When I was younger, I despised coffee. Every time I heard the phrase “Let’s go get some coffee?” I thought the question was addressed to me by a lazy person with nothing else to do but spend time sprawled out on couches and chairs in a coffee shop. I was strict with others, and with myself, after all. I was wrong. I started drinking coffee at the age of thirty. Previously, I tried to include it in my habits, but … it didn’t work out. However, since the early 2000s, it has become part of my daily ritual: get up, take a shower, have a quick breakfast and … walk out the door. First stop of the day at my favorite cafe on the way to Athens 9.84. There’s a first good morning, a tease or a compliment, a comment on the news, a nice song, a disappointment. Because that’s exactly what coffee does, or rather the coffee habit: it brings people together. He opens mouths and hearts. He rejuvenates. Gradually, I began to distinguish the taste of each mixture. Softer, more intense, more aromatic, more oriental. I learned about how it is baked, fried, ground and even cooled. So I settled on a flavor profile that I like and choose. And, yes, I am one of those people who carry one cup of coffee from early morning until late at night.

Excipient

Coffee is the embodiment of individuality, egocentrism. Generally. A supportive substance, a lubricant for self-dialogue, a helper for lack of sleep and energy, a crutch for chronic fatigue. But on the days when I visit my father, once every six months I wake up early. I’m sitting next to him at the kitchen counter, and he’s standing about a foot away from me, making coffee. It’s too early, it’s not even seven yet. Quiet next door to working tenement houses. I hear a sequence of sounds. Cabinets that open and close. Metal boxes with sugar and coffee. Tap. Running water. Lighter. Gas noise. A spoon that slides down to the bottom of the teapot in a soothing roundness. A few seconds later, the smell of roasted coffee reaches my nostrils. The hissing stops, the hum of the gas stops. If I concentrate (or if the sparrows on the balcony, nibbling on the bread my father tosses to them when he wakes up, don’t chirp), I can hear the finished coffee flowing into the cup. So many incentives, and the cup has not yet reached me, I have not taken the first sip. Every time I see my father, how intently he looks at the teapot, I understand that he is not trying at all, there is no refinement, no tension, no anxiety in him. It’s just like that. He makes us morning coffee. And so, in recent years, I stopped wondering what art is.

Gerasimos Evangeliatos
lyricist

The ancient wisdom of coffee

“When I wake up, before I get dressed, I will stab myself with coffee and aspirin,” I wrote twenty years ago and magically became a lyricist; it was a paradoxical gamble that still makes sense to me, just like the coffee ritual. Luckily, I stay up late and don’t drink like I used to, so aspirin and other painkillers have become less common, unlike the pains and coffee that follow each other steadily every day: first thing in the morning, a double americano. simple. And behind it some others, sometimes less and sometimes more, make up my good or bad day, sip after sip and give a false signal of the night. Without coffee, everyday life has no color, no aroma, no taste. Without coffee, the mind does not work, the body does not wake up and the tongue does not untie. But above all, in her absence, the greatest lesson of her ancient wisdom evaporates: how black, intense (perhaps sharp and absolute) bitterness, inexorably striking all without exception of feelings, can satisfy the recommended daily needs of tenderness of the average person. better than the most ethereal caress.

Numbers

2.25 billion cups of coffee are drunk every day all over the world.

12 countries they account for 90% of world production: Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Uganda, Vietnam.

from 40% Brazil is the production champion.

84% Greeks drink coffee every day and even more than once. (Kappa Research on behalf of the Greek Coffee Association)

5 large chain stores cover approximately 60% of the Greek coffee market with almost 1,500 stores.