FOR DECADES, the global coffee conversation has revolved around two familiar names: Arabica and Robusta. One celebrated for complexity and flavour, the other valued for resilience and higher yields. But climate change is beginning to unsettle both.
Across coffee-growing regions, rising temperatures, delayed monsoons, erratic rainfall, and increasing pest attacks are making cultivation more unpredictable than ever. Arabica, especially, struggles once temperatures cross 30°C, while even hardier Robusta is beginning to show signs of stress.
As growers confront an increasingly unstable future, a lesser-known species is quietly re-entering the conversation: Excelsa.
Image by Pranoy Thipaiah, Manager, Kerehaklu Estate in Chikkamagaluru | via Mongabay India
In India, the shift is already visible in small but significant ways. Carnatic musician and coffee roaster Akshay Vaidyanathan first introduced an Excelsa roast through his coffee label Kapikottai in 2020 as a small experimental batch. What began almost as a curiosity quickly found an audience of its own.
“It’s been an institution since then, and sells out fast,” Vaidyanathan says. “A lot of people don’t realise it is another species. They feel it’s just good coffee.”
That distinction may soon matter far more than consumers realise.
Native to parts of Tropical Africa and Southeast Asia, Excelsa (Coffea dewevrei) has existed on the edges of India’s coffee landscape for generations. In many estates across South India and the Northeast, the tall trees were planted less for commercial cultivation and more as shade providers or boundary markers. They were rarely considered commercially viable because of their height and dense branching.
Now, climate anxiety is forcing growers to look again.
In Karnataka’s Kodagu district, the South India Coffee Company (SICC) has around 60-year-old Excelsa trees growing on its estates. Co-founder Akshay Dashrath recalls that his grandfather regularly drank Excelsa at home, and that it was occasionally blended with Arabica in Kerala.
For years, however, Excelsa remained overlooked. The Indian Coffee Board had reportedly advised growers to remove the species due to pest concerns, particularly berry borer infestations. Dashrath’s family chose not to cut their trees down. Today, those same trees are being reevaluated as potential climate-resilient crops.
The interest is not purely theoretical anymore. Between 2024 and 2025, SICC began reassessing Excelsa across five estates for its adaptability and resilience. Production remains relatively small, but interest is growing steadily.
Elsewhere in Karnataka, Kerehaklu Estate in Chikkamagaluru has been growing Excelsa and Liberica since the 1950s. Managing partner Pranoy Thipaiah says climate instability is already reshaping the rhythms of cultivation.
“We are seeing significant climate-related issues, particularly with longer and more intense rainfall during the monsoon and early summers,” Thipaiah explains. “Plants’ biological clocks have shifted, and pest pressure has increased.”
Unlike Arabica, Excelsa and Liberica appear better suited to these changing conditions. Their longer gestation period means harvesting happens later in the season, often after disruptive late monsoon rains have passed.
Thipaiah is now expanding trials with multiple varieties sourced from Vietnam. What was once a niche curiosity is increasingly beginning to look like a practical adaptation strategy.
The search for climate-resilient coffee is now happening globally.
Researchers have identified 133 coffee species worldwide, many of which are being revisited as the climate crisis intensifies. Among the leading researchers is Aaron Davis of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, who has spent decades studying coffee species across Africa and Asia. Davis believes the industry’s long dependence on Arabica and Robusta may no longer be sustainable.
“In the next decade or sooner, we may see some major disruptions in coffee cultivation,” Davis predicts.
His argument is not simply about replacing one species with another, but about diversification itself.
“When we talk about climate-resilient coffee, it is about finding climate-appropriate species,” Davis says. “We need a portfolio of coffee crop species to adapt to altered climates.”
Excelsa is only one possibility. Other species, including Liberica and Stenophylla, are also being explored for their tolerance to heat, drought, and disease. Researchers are even experimenting with hybrids between Liberica and Excelsa — a newly proposed hybrid called Libex coffee — as a possible climate-adaptive crop for the future.
Meanwhile, countries such as Uganda and Vietnam are already scaling Excelsa production. Ugandan growers, in particular, report that Excelsa is proving more resilient and productive than Robusta under changing climate conditions.
Back in India, interest continues to build quietly. SICC has reportedly received requests for thousands of Excelsa saplings for future planting.
For consumers, the shift may still feel distant. Most coffee drinkers remain unfamiliar with Excelsa altogether. But across estates, nurseries, and research labs, the future of coffee is already beginning to splinter into new possibilities.
And in a warming world, the next great coffee species may not be Arabica at all.
This story has been adapted from an original article by Meena Menon on Mongabay India.