Coffee in america

[MrBox]

Why can't or doesn't coffee grow in the lower 48 states?

it seems to me that places in the southeast would be pretty similar to the caribbean in climate

My friend bought a coffee plant (lives in south georgia) a year or so ago I'm pretty sure its still live and kicking hasn't fruited yet.

[Ads]

[topher]

I was so stoked when I moved to Boca...I saw the only mountains in Florida...when I saw them I told my wife, "I can grow coffee here" She looked at me like I was nuts...I assured her that the climate was perfect...and now I had the right alttitude....she said I was nuts....then I pointed her to Mount Boca...and she said shut up dumb ass thats the dump...sigh guess I wont make my millions as a coffee grower

[equus007]

coffee trees take two years to mature and will die with any hard freeze...ie 80 degrees F one day 24 F the next. They can take a gradual freeze but even this will highly damage your crops. While there are a few places in the US that this could be done it would be very costly and I doubt that you would be able to find any willing investers. I have been contemplating using a hydroponic system to grow a few plants but the cost would be so high I would have to charge around 150$/pound regardless of the quality of the beans produced. Gonna try it anyway with the help of some friends that never quit being stoners after school.
Also the industry has thus far been very leary of GM coffee plants and rightly so. What would happen if one of those strains of Japanese "naturally" decaf beans got loose. Is there a posibility it could influence the natural plants leading to a weaker brew. We just don't know. I think this kind of research should be focusing on making more temparature resistant strains so we could one day see something like the ice wines we see today. Tiny little beans packed to the gills with flavor.

[equus007]

I would also be worried about what this would do to the economies of the countries that depend on the coffee trade to support their already sour GNP's. Columbia already hates us enough and we don't need them producing more hard drugs for our market.

[twobeans]

RIGHT ON TOPHER!!!!! Irony is sooo appreciated.

[equus007]

agreed

[Ellie]

Topher,

That is too funny! I have seen the mount of which you speak. It's amazing!

About a year ago I read about someone who purchased a large area of land in south Fl, and somehow got some support or protection or something from the government to grow coffee. They would be the first coffee farm in the U.S. Don't know if it was Robusta (that would be my guess) or Arabica. You think they may be located on one of those south Fl mountains?

Ellie

[equus007]

Don't forget that we do grow coffee in America...just not the lower 48. Soon we will take over Cuba and then we can all have cigar flavored coffee....mmmmm...smokey goodness. Don't think the US is up to/able to give any breaks to anybody doing experiments right now. Might want to contact the Chinese...we could always hit them up to build a mountain island in the Gulf of Mexico....we'll call it Argentexas.

BTW is there any coffee grown in China? Alun you know?

[Alun_evans]

Yes the Chinese do produce a reasonable quantity of coffee. Mostly Arabica. There was an article published sometime back in Roast Magazine about the industry there...I am not too familiar with the quality or the cupping charatceristics of the coffee from there, but might try to get a roaster I know there to send me samples to try.

[KALUKALUKE]

hEY WHAT ABOUT ALASKAN COFFEE, WE ALWAYS GET KICKED OFF THE MAP. JUST LOOK AT YOUR ATLAS AK IS RIGHT NEXT TO HAWAII OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST NEXT TO MECHICO?

BUT HEY i KNOW PLANTS ARE SURVIVING THANKS TO A FEW THINGS GLOBAL WARMING MAYBE BUT HYDROPONIC GEOTHERMALSOIL MASS YEP IT WORKS WINTER SUNLIGHT IS THE KICKER THOUGH, ONLY 5 HOURS OF GOOD LIGHT A DAY AT ITS SLOWEST. SO YES ANOTHER NON (4 STATEADDS INTREST TO THE GLOBAL COFFEE SCENE.

KALUKALUKE