Signs of the Apocolypse?: Climate change could make coffee and chocolate endangered foods

Good God............... no!

Aw, bullshit. It might ruin the economies of some countries, but don't kid yourself. Coffee and cacao will just be grown in different countries where the climate and the soil will make it practicable. Both are far too valuable crops to be neglected just because the Columbians can't grow them any longer.

Just another excuse to raise prices

There are reports of the same thing happening with grapes in France, now Champaign is grown in England. Change, as they say, is the only constant.

Bingo. Two thousand years ago, when the climate was warmer, the Romans grew wine grapes in Britain. Plus ça change, plus c'est le même chose.

Couple of years ago they were saying bananas might become a fruit of the past. Turned out they were only talking about one species, the kind that we've all been buying at the supermarket because it's the only kind most supermarkets carry. It's the most profitable, is why. Turns out a number of other, even tastier, varieties of banana are in no danger of extinction whatever. But it'd mean the big grocery chains having to change their distributors and suppliers and re-adjusting their price structures; so it's easier to cause fear and trepidation among consumers, rather than change their game plans.

I seriously doubt that either wine or coffee are in any danger of becoming beverages of nostalgia in the foreseeable (or even distant) future.

I think our governments would go the drastic distance of terraforming the moon to grow coffee before letting the caffeine vehicle go extinct.

Nothing like freshly-roasted coffee from the jungles of Siberia. . . .

Mocha, buddy . . . prime Kamchatka cocoa with your Siberian, fair-trade, organic "Columbian" . . .

Coffee and chocolate and maybe wine...becoming scarce? Bring out the nukes!

I've lived so long that . . . both have become known for health benefits. * Talk about changes.
Oops, wine too.

* not Hershey's so much

OF COURSE I'VE BEGUN HOARDING!

I'm a fan of Ghirardelli, Lindt and Swiss and Belgian chocolates. Hershey's? -- not so much.

That reminds..time to round up some chocolate treats. This is my pre-Halloween seasonal workout.

I just know you're going to get the gold medal this year Ragman. Shoot for the stars (and gourmet chocolate truffles)!

Baby loves handmade belgian chocolates, and the specialty chocolates in a shop in Parma (don't get me started); I do like Lindt ok as far as chocolate bars I can find around here. I also like a company I forget the name of that's within my splurge budget - they tend to have a kind of waffle pattern dark chocolate bar with various fillings. If my chocolate ship comes in, then I'll check out the valhrona (french) chocolate bars. Mmmm, remembering Diane and I getting chocolates at the Plaza Hotel in NYC - in a small shop, a name like Neuchatel (swiss?). Only one though. I'll have to go back for more to see if they measure up.

I am probably the only one on this board who is unafraid to say that chocolate blows. I am kinda repulsed by it. It reminds me of a mix of tar and sugar.

Same thing with cavendish bananas, the genetic freaks of agriculture. Ive had some of the smaller, extremely flavorful local bananas in the Philipines , Thailand, even Costa Rica and you can take all the cavendishes and use em for bug bait. Theres a little teeny banana from the Phillipine hills that taste like a custardy honey fruit. SO flavorful. Trouble is, they must be picked fresh and sweet and they begin rotting almost immediately. They dont travel past the immediate table
CAvendish are picked as embryos and allowed to ripen on the boats under an ethylen gas curtain. Like tomatoes, noone pays for flavor, just weight and not being overripe.

Im wanna grow bananas in S Pa. how long must I wait vefore I can bring in some stock?

So right, farmer! There's a locally-grown variety of bananas available here in Hawaii that's known here as 'apple bananas.' Don't know what the right botanical name is. Head and shoulders above the tripe they import from California to please all the relocated and dislocated mainlanders who so desperately want to hang on to their Cavendishes. Like the Philippine variety you mention, these are usually much smaller than the regular big banana, and much tastier.

I had an awesome bananas in Puerto Rico, sometimes you get some smaller bananas at the Lebanese market, I have no idea what any of the varieties are called, but they are much nicer than the normal ones we get here.

We were getting some great bananas from the Chinese greengrocers, and they also had the property of rotting if you looked at them crosseyed. Trouble is, the Chinese greengrocers don't speak English, and i don't speak Manadarin . . . or Cantonese, or Haka, or whatever the hell they speak. Great bananas, though . . .