There are more than a hundred different species of coffee plants! However, the majority of coffee that we drink comes from only two species: Arabica and Robusta. These plants require specific altitudes and climates to flourish, so they grow in only select regions of the world, a topic we've discussed before.

But as the world encounters the effects of changing climate, it's becoming difficult to grow our familiar coffee plants like we used to. The good news is that scientists are identifying other species that can thrive in the warmer temperatures we're experiencing.

Aaron Davis is the head of coffee research at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in the U.K. He has discovered that some of these new species taste as good as Arabica but are more adaptable to warmer climates. Drought and increasing temperatures affect coffee crops in different areas, so Mr. Davis is turning to the Stenophylla species of coffee that was once widely farmed in West Africa.

"We were in contact with people that had a memory from their childhood of this coffee and said it was absolutely wonderful. But when we went out and spoke to farmers...nobody had any knowledge of it." Davis says.

A mission was dispatched to discover this forgotten species of coffee, and local experts teamed up with Davis's group to search for and find a Stenophylla coffee plant growing in a forest in Sierra Leone. The team harvested the coffee beans, roasted the samples, and tried the coffee created from this particular species."The aroma and the fragrance of the coffee was wonderful," Davis says. "It actually tasted like Arabica coffee."

The real difference is that Stenophylla can grow in temperatures up to 12 degrees warmer than traditional coffee crops can tolerate. Therefore, this would be a more climate-resilient crop for farmers and could help increase the cultivation and breeding of more coffee plants, which is excellent news for us coffee lovers!

At SunriseCoffeeLA, we're committed to being good stewards of our planet and its resources, and we'll keep you up-to-date on exciting developments. In the meantime, we invite you to check out our wonderful assortment of coffees from around the world.