For as long as the coffee industry has existed, one thing has been certain: Coffee beans come from the Coffee Belt, the land band that circles the globe between the Tropics. Brazil, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Colombia. Coffee needs heat and humidity. In recent years, however, a new point has appeared on the map, far outside those traditional growing regions: Palermo. Here, the Morettino family is cultivating Italy’s first native coffee crop and one of the northernmost coffee plantations in the world. How is that possible? As is so often the case, climate change has something to do with it.

In San Lorenzo ai Colli, near park Favorita, the Morettino family grows coffee on two hectares of land — still a small operation, roughly the size of three soccer fields.

“We harvest 100 kilograms of coffee cherries a year,” says Andrea Morettino, the fourth generation of his family’s coffee business, which has been producing coffee since 1920 — using, of course, imported beans. Once processed and roasted, those 100 kilograms harvested in Palermo yield just over 15 kilograms of beans. That is far too little to sell, but visitors can occasionally taste the coffee for free at the Morettino Lab, the family’s coffee shop in Palermo, which recently received three cups from Gambero Rosso.

It all began more than 40 years ago, when Andrea’s father, Arturo Morettino, returned from a trip to Guatemala. “He was struck by how easily the plants grew and wanted to try growing them in Sicily. In the 1990s, thanks to seeds donated by Palermo’s Botanical Garden, we planted about 60 Arabica plants.” For decades, they struggled to grow in an unfavorable climate. “The idea started as a curiosity,” Andrea Morettino recalls.

It might have remained just that, but then temperatures began to rise. “Everything changed over the past six years. The heat has been tropical.” Palermo suddenly found itself with a Coffee Belt climate. “2021 was remarkable. Until then, harvesting coffee on this scale had been unthinkable.” That year, the family harvested 30 kilograms of coffee cherries. In 2022, the total rose to 50 kilograms, and in 2023, to 70.

The cherries are picked by hand, processed, fermented and dried, and then roasted. “Every year, we also create a kind of nursery to grow new plants and expand the plantation.” The project involves Palermo’s Botanical Garden and the University of Palermo’s Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences. “These are long-term processes, with a scientific and experimental approach,” Morettino says. The hope, however, is that one day they will be able to market the first “native Italian specialty coffee.”

And what does it taste like? “We brought in coffee-tasting experts. According to them, in addition to the classic flavors associated with Arabica, our coffee has notes that evoke the Sicilian landscape: white flowers, orange blossom and raisins.” University analyses also found “bioactive and nutritional components comparable to those found in coffee from tropical regions.”

If Sicily is becoming fertile ground for coffee — as well as avocados and other tropical fruits “thanks” to climate change, conditions are worsening elsewhere. In the world’s major coffee-growing regions, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall are threatening harvests.

According to a study by the University of Zurich, by 2050 the areas most suitable for growing Arabica could shrink by more than half.

Uncertain harvests are reflected in international coffee prices, while transportation is also facing disruptions along routes through the Red Sea and the Panama Canal. Coffee has thus become a barometer of the planet’s shifting climate and geopolitical balance.

In Palermo, meanwhile, the Morettino family continues to study the climate and its plants — and to cultivate a dream that dates back generations. In 1905, gardeners at Palermo’s Botanical Garden tried growing 25 coffee plants outdoors. Winter temperatures of 27 degrees Fahrenheit killed them. They tried again in 1911, and once again the cold destroyed the plants. They concluded that Sicily was not coffee country.

A century later, in a world transformed by a radically different climate, there is evidence to the contrary. And the reason should make us stop and think. — © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.