Is Catimor Coffee Arabica? Is Catimor Coffee Good? Catimor Coffee Price List

The Coffee Industry's Response to Rust Disease

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As is well known, in the 1970s, coffee cultivation faced the impact of rust disease, and the global coffee industry encountered a harsh winter. This was only true for Arabica growers; for Robusta, it was merely the beginning of spring. Because Robusta was a great invention, through the hybridization of medium and small-grain varieties, Robusta gained immunity to rust disease in high-temperature and high-humidity environments without requiring specific growing heights. Its yield was also more than double that of Arabica, making farmers more willing to plant the higher-return Robusta.

The Evolution of Coffee Preferences

If the coffee industry had merely stayed at this point in time, with everyone drinking instant coffee and no development of specialty coffee, perhaps this would have been the best ending to the story. However, things are unpredictable—coffee began to be appreciated for its flavor profiles. The quality and taste of Robusta differ greatly from Arabica, and the Robusta hybrid varieties promoted in emerging growing regions to combat rust disease had already come to represent a significant portion of coffee production. Thus, people thought of a method—treating Arabica-Robusta hybrids as equivalent to Arabica.

The Chinese Coffee Industry's Example

An example close to home illustrates this rather absurd assumption. Traditionally, we would bring Arabica Typica to Binchuan Zhugula, considering it the starting point of Chinese coffee. However, the true starting point of modern Chinese coffee industry was actually planting Catimor coffee beans for Nestlé to earn foreign exchange. When the specialty coffee industry emerged, we only had medium-to-small grain hybrid varieties, with no large-scale cultivation of small-grain varieties. Consequently, we treated Yunnan's Catimor coffee beans, which contain Robusta genes, equally as "Yunnan small-grain coffee."

Market Acceptance and Business Reality

Historical experience tells us that this method is effective and widely accepted by the market. Every coffee season, numerous coffee professionals rush to the mountains of Yunnan, indiscriminately gathering Catimor coffee beans to bring to cities for serious tasting by customers. Some supposedly official coffee trading centers recommend all specialty beans—yes, all uniformly Catimor coffee beans—and rate them. It's worth noting that these activities involve practitioners with extensive specialty coffee industry experience as well as coffee evaluators. Although they are well aware of what constitutes specialty coffee, this doesn't prevent them from staging the emperor's new clothes. Why is reality like this? The answer is only one—this is perhaps just everyone's business.

The Future of Coffee Varieties

For those in the industry and coffee lovers, whether one is drinking a pure 100% Arabica specialty coffee is not important, nor is it particularly important whether Robusta can become a branch of specialty coffee. In the future, perhaps the market will widely accept Robusta as a specialty bean.

What Coffee Enthusiasts Should Know

What's important is that we who love coffee need to understand:

• What is Arabica?
• What is Robusta?
• What is single-origin coffee?

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

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