No, that's not it. The news comes from Barchart, which notes that "Arabica Closes At A 10-1/4 Year High As Global Coffee Supplies Plunge".
Arabica is valued as the best quality coffee bean (as opposed to lesser ones like Robusta, Excelsa, and Liberica, often grown in places like Vietnam), and it is certainly the most popular. The idea of a shortage driving up the price of coffee, and possibly resulting in worse beans getting into the mix, is fascinating. I look at it this way:
Despite the fact that I consider myself a morning person, I have a strong desire for morning coffee. My wife simply cannot function without it, and suffers withdrawal symptoms including headaches. This house will cease to function if this coffee shortage turns serious.
So what has led to this threat? Labor shortage? Revolution? Coffee bean blight?
I've done some serious study of the commodities market, having seen Trading Places several times, and I think we know that there can be reasons other than these for wrecking a market. However, returning to the Barchart story, we see that
Arabica coffee prices are seeing support from expectations of lower global supplies due to unfavorable weather and supply chain disruptions. Drought and recent frost events have devastated Brazil's coffee crop this year and have curbed the growth potential for the country's coffee crop for the next two years.
The good news is that better weather in the forecast may be leading to better crops going forward. I certainly hope so, because otherwise we are hosed. The only U.S. state that has the climate to grow coffee is Hawaii, and while the coffee they grow there is awesome, they can't possibly feed the machine that is the U.S. economy. America may run on Dunkin', as the chain claims, but what does Dunkin' run on? Coffee. We didn't get to be the biggest economic engine in the history of the world on doggone tea, people!
For some of us the situation is even more desperate. People fighting against chronic fatigue syndrome, for example, or relying on medications like diphenhydramine in allergy season that can cause sleepiness. Or me, still taking duloxetine for spinal neuropathy. Flat-out fatigue cannot be totally mitigated with caffeine, but most of the time it will get us through in a pinch. And what about the binge-watchers, the one-more-episoders who never get enough sleep? What will become of them?
Yes, we could resort to Red Bull or other gruesome beverages, which are made with synthetically produced caffeine. If it gets that bad, I guess I would. Of course, that would lead to the price of energy drinks skyrocketing, and then we'd be in another vicious, sleepy circle.
Come on, Brazil! Get it together! We need you!
4 comments:
Where can I get a civet cat?
PLW the youngest has become a coffee snob with the French press and grinding his own beans (in a burr grinder, of course), minding the temperature of the water, etc.
I need to one-up him, and I think pre-processing the coffee via the civet cat would do the trick, I've heard the results are something else.
I like coffee. Before my current bout with the Chinese Lung Rot, I'd drink at least four cups of black coffee a day, often more. Not so much now, but I'm working on it. From years on shift work and in the Army, it didn't have to be hot, either. Not unusual to come on shift, find leftover coffee in the mug and down it on the way to the coffee pot.
Kona coffee is quite good. Denny's used to serve it back in the '70s. Don't know about now.
I remember back when I was a kid, coffee was from Brazil. When did that change? (I wasn't paying attention).
I did tea for awhile and I have a stockpile. Not sure it would be that welcome a comeback but it does have caffeine. I did start a coffee stockpile shortly after Biden was sworn in. I have about 6 cans in reserve at any one time.
Brazil is still the numero uno country for coffee, so "The Coffee Song" won't need to change it's lyrics. And good job with the stockpile, Bear.
As for the civet cat... Well, report back with your results, PLW. I haven't the guts to taste beans that have been through something's guts.
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