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comment by ecib
ecib  ·  4364 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Global Warming And The Death Of The Best Coffee The World Has Never Tasted

    In fairness, this is kind of alarmist, because it's jumping to the conclusions that wild arabica beans are going to be the best undiscovered coffee in the world.

I agree that it makes assumptions, but given that the wild beans represent the vast majority of untasted arabica coffee varieties, doesn't simple math dictate that there must be some amazing beans in there? On the other hand, the sheer diversity means that even if there are, there is no saying we would ever stumble upon them...

It's sort of like music I guess. We know that the best songs on Earth (to us) are out there, waiting to be discovered. For every song we know that absolutely floors us, there are dozens more out there by obscure artists that poor chains of distribution and knowledge prevent us from ever knowing. There are bands out there making breathtaking music that I will never stumble upon. If those bands break up, how much of a loss is it for me, really? As long as I have awesome music to listen to, I guess a certain essential need has been satisfied.