There are various types of coffee that are available in today's market, with many being artisanal and sought after. Of the various regions sought after, Brazilian coffee is some of the most popular with its distinct taste and strong flavor. You can learn about the 5 most delicious Brazilian coffee brands to savor today! You better act quick though as unfortunately, coffee from the Latin American region can potentially be in trouble due to a fungus that seems to be spreading.
A fungus called hemileia vastatrix causes a plant disease called coffee leaf rust. It affects the two major commercial species of coffee, Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, and likely many other coffee species.
Coffee leaf rust causes yellow spots to form on the leaves of coffee plants, and eventually, lesions that cause the leaves to drop from the plant prematurely; it devastates the bean harvest. There is no cure for the disease and attempts to thwart it may only be encouraging resistant varieties to evolve.
Related: Sequence of Arabica Coffee Publicly Released
First discovered by westerners in 1861, this devastating fungus has been creating a crisis in Latin America. An outbreak that began in the coffee-producing region in 2012 has spread, with up to seventy percent of farms now affected, and an estimated 1.7 million farmhands out of work.
Sources: The American Phytopathological Society, NPR