While there are more than a hundred known coffee species, the world gets its caffeine hit mostly from the beans of just two -- Arabica, considered to be the superior brew, and the less refined Robusta, mostly used for instant mixes.
Arabica, which originates in the highlands of Ethiopia and South Sudan, is a cool tropical plant, preferring average annual temperatures of around 19 degrees Celsius. It is thought to be more vulnerable to global warming than Robusta, which can endure up to around 23 C. It fell out of use in the 20th century, vanishing completely from the record in 1954, until scientists finally found it growing in the wild in Sierra Leone in 2018 and set about studying its temperature tolerance -- and its flavour.
The new coffee had notes of "rose, elderflower, lychee, like the best Arabica", she told AFP, adding that the sample provided was so rare that not everyone was able to taste it.
Good to know.