For the second part of Malaysia’s first Coffee Consulate Coffeologist Meeting, we arranged a unique cupping session for everyone, including members of the press, to take part in a sensory exploration into three different species of coffee: Arabica, Canephora, and Liberica. The three species were then categorised according to our diverse sample of varieties, processing methods, and origins. For instance, Arabica varieties ranged from Typica to hybrids, El Salvadorian Catuai to Taiwanese Gesha. We also had high-quality Canephoras from Uganda, Indonesia, and India. We managed to cup several groups of Libericas; as rare as they are, from India, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia. We even had one-of-a-kind processing methods such as Sou vie processed and Lime processed Liberica brought over by My Liberica.

High volume crops such as coffee are being artificially selected by human preferences since the dawn of agriculture. However, overdoing it may cause disruptions to the balance of nature, and we believe the key to a sustainable future of agriculture lies in diversity. When applied to coffee, the first step should start with our taste preference. We need to start making people register that there shouldn’t be just one direction in terms of what “good coffee” should taste like. The idea of this cross-species cupping session is to break through the current Arabica-focused trend in the specialty market and try to reset our mindset and bias toward other species of coffee.