First the bad news. The two types of coffee that most people drink – Arabica and Robusta – are at serious risk in the era of climate change.

Now the good news. Farmers in one of Africa’s leading coffee exporting countries are growing a new variety that is better able to withstand the heat and drought exacerbated by global warming.

For years, farmers in Uganda simply mixed it with bagged Robusta. This year they are trying to sell it under the real name: Liberica excelsa.

“Even if there is a lot of heat, it holds up very well,” said a coffee farmer near the city in central Uganda. In recent years, when robusta trees were suffering from disease, he replaced them with liberica trees. On its six acres, there are now only 50 varieties of Robusta and 1,000 varieties of Liberica. Goloba farmer John says this variety is more flavorful than Robusta and more aromatic.

Each Liberica tree can be up to eight meters tall, so farmers have to climb bamboo ladders to harvest their crops. Or they have to prune the trees so that they grow in breadth and not up.

Dr. Katherine Kiuka, a coffee specialist with the National Agricultural Research Service, called Liberica excelsa “a forgotten coffee.” “Due to climate change, we need to think about other species that can support this industry globally,” she said.

In 2016, Kiuka invited Dr. Aaron Davies, coffee specialist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, Uganda. At first he was wary. He tried Liberica elsewhere and described it as “vegetable soup”.

But as he grinded grains in his portable mill, he changed his mind. “Actually, he’s not bad,” he said. Dr. Davis called the taste of Liberica excelsa “mild”. It has a heavy flavor and contains less caffeine than Robusta.

Dr. Davis is well aware of the dangers coffee faces. His research has shown that climate change and deforestation are endangering more than half of the world’s wild coffee species.

The two scientists urged farmers to improve harvesting and drying.

“In a world suffering from climate change and in an era of supply chain disruptions, Liberica coffee could be re-launched as an important crop,” the scientists wrote in the scientific journal Nature.

According to the New York Times