Robusta Coffee Bean Prices - Why Robusta Has a Bad Reputation - How to Brew Robusta Coffee

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People might describe it this way: if Arabica is a gift from angels, Robusta coffee beans are like the devil's snot, always scorned and rejected by coffee connoisseurs...

People tend to view things in binary terms: good and bad, kind and evil, superior and inferior. This seems to be true in the coffee world as well.

"Arabica" coffee beans are always classified as "good," while their distant cousin "Robusta" coffee beans are often classified as "bad." We might describe it this way: if Arabica is a gift from angels, Robusta is like the devil's snot, always scorned and rejected by coffee connoisseurs.

Why Does Robusta Have Such a Bad Reputation?

Robusta coffee beans, also known as robusta beans, are round and look like soybeans at first glance. They have strong disease and pest resistance, high yield, and low prices. The specialty coffee industry has historically had a very poor impression of Robusta because it usually lacks charming, delicate flavors.

A bigger problem is that because it's positioned as a low-priced product, cultivation and processing methods are generally extremely rough, leading to an abundance of defect flavors. It often carries earthy, dirty tastes, and sometimes even flavors reminiscent of burnt tires or burning plastic.

Ten years ago, I had the opportunity to taste several cheap Vietnamese Robusta beans, and a few of them were unforgettable because they tasted like burnt barley tea seasoned with tire flavor, accompanied by nine other defect flavors that made me spit them out involuntarily, never wanting to take another sip.

Why Discuss Robusta If It's So Bad?

Good question. As mentioned at the beginning, everything has its good and bad sides. Good beans take you to heaven, bad beans make you pound your chest. This is true for Arabica, and naturally, Robusta is no exception.

With the wave of specialty coffee in recent years, high-quality processed specialty Robusta beans have emerged around the world. The representative of specialty-grade Robusta beans is India's "Kappi Royale" grade Robusta.

"Kappi Royale" means "top grade," and currently, at least four (and growing) private coffee estates in India are cultivating and producing high-quality "Kappi Royale" grade Robusta coffee beans using the standards and procedures of specialty Arabica beans! This includes sophisticated full-wash processing and the popular Pulp Natural "honey processing" method (mucilage-dried semi-washed processing) in recent years.

The advent of "Kappi Royale" grade specialty Robusta beans is undoubtedly changing the world's impression of Robusta! Most people who have tried it are amazed by its combination of thickness and cleanliness. Due to sophisticated cultivation and processing procedures, "Kappi Royale" grade Robusta's flavor profile is generally quite clean, without the disturbing defect flavors found in cheap-grade Robusta.

The Unique Characteristics of Robusta

Robusta naturally lacks the ethereal aromatic fragrance unique to Arabica beans. Instead, it offers a thicker, deeper mouthfeel, along with walnut, peanut, hazelnut, wheat, and grain aromas reminiscent of peanut butter and hazelnut paste.

India's "Kappi Royale" grade Robusta currently has limited production but is gradually gaining recognition from elite specialty coffee professionals worldwide. Espresso expert David C. Schomer's renowned Seattle shop Espresso Vivace began adding 14% Indian "Kappi Royale" grade Robusta to their espresso blends ten years ago. Paradise Roasters, the top-ranked American coffee review scoring roastery, pioneered the North American specialty coffee market by launching a 100% Robusta Indian CxR single-origin espresso in 2009, receiving 90 and 91-point ratings from Coffee Review in 2009 and 2010, proving that Robusta is no longer what it used to be.

Incidentally, India's "Kappi Royale" grade Robusta is not cheap, rivaling the prices of many high-end Arabica beans. So, from now on, please don't say that all Robusta beans are bad beans—after all, times have changed. With the emergence and gradual recognition of high-quality Robusta, it will inevitably cause some chain reactions and changes in specialty coffee culture.

Italy's Love Affair with Robusta

If you were to ask which country or region in the world loves Robusta beans the most, the undisputed first place would be Italy, the homeland of Espresso. To be more precise, the area with the highest Robusta usage is southern Italy, including regions like Palermo, Naples, and Sicily.

In fact, in southern Italy, the coffee people drink generally contains a相当 high proportion of Robusta beans. Content ranging from 30% to 60% is commonplace, with some blends containing up to 80% or even 100% Robusta.

Opening the supply list of local Italian green coffee wholesalers, you'll find dozens, sometimes as many as twenty-plus varieties of Robusta green beans from coffee-producing regions worldwide, available for local coffee roasters to choose from. This phenomenon is virtually non-existent and unimaginable in other parts of the world, such as the US, Canada, Northern Europe, Japan, or even Taiwan.

The Italian Secret: Beyond Crema

You might wonder why Italians mix large amounts of Robusta into their Arabica beans. The common explanation is that Italians add Robusta to increase the Crema content in Espresso.

This explanation is only half true. In fact, there's another little-known reason.

It turns out that southern Italy was relatively poor in the past, and people could only afford low-priced coffee. Therefore, the initial mixing of Robusta coffee beans was simply to reduce costs.

However, after years of extensive roasting and blending with Robusta, combined with Italians' natural sensitivity to cooking gourmet food, they discovered that Robusta beans possess many aromas and characteristics that Arabica beans lack. As long as one is familiar with and fully grasps these aromas and characteristics, an excellent chef (coffee roaster) can present dishes (espresso) with captivating magic.

Scientific Differences and Metaphorical Understanding

Compared to Arabica's 44 pairs of chromosomes, Robusta beans have only 22 pairs, with caffeine contents of 1.5% and 2.8% respectively. They cannot be cross-bred through grafting, which explains why they are completely different varieties and why "Arabica" and "Robusta" have so many completely different characteristics.

I like to use this analogy: Arabica beans are like "earthlings"—we encounter them easily and are very familiar with them. Robusta coffee beans are like "aliens"—although they have an appearance similar to earthlings, their inner nature is completely different! Earthlings and aliens each have their strengths and weaknesses, each excelling in different areas. Although they are different species that cannot intermarry and have children, through clever arrangements, placing them together to complement each other's strengths and fully cooperate, they can each contribute their strengths and spark surprising chemistry.

Everyone has their purpose in life. Robusta and Arabica are both gifts from heaven; the difference lies only in how they are used.

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

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