What Are Robusta Coffee Beans? Understanding Robusta Coffee Characteristics, Pros and Cons

Robusta is what we commonly refer to as Robusta coffee, a widely cultivated coffee variety alongside Arabica. Both varieties are now commercially circulated coffee bean types in the market. When we learn about Robusta-related knowledge, we often see terms like "unpleasant" and "bitter." So does Robusta necessarily represent bad-tasting coffee? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce this unpopular variety to everyone.

What are the characteristics of Robusta?

The main reason Robusta is unpopular in the coffee circle is that its flavor is not as appealing as Arabica. Through analysis, Robusta has a very high chlorogenic acid content and relatively low sucrose content. Chlorogenic acid is the source of bitterness in coffee, usually accompanied by rich, deeper bitterness and flavor notes such as walnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts, barley tea, and grains. When poorly processed, it can also exhibit strong, earthy flavors and negative rubber-like tastes. Deep-roasted Robusta beans accumulate large amounts of gas, and when extracted into espresso using an espresso machine, they release rich crema, while the solid flavor profile also provides more body to the coffee. In Italy, locals pursue intense coffee flavor and rich crema, so many coffee shops add a certain proportion of Robusta beans when making espresso to enhance its "coffee taste."

Since Robusta doesn't taste good, why do so many people grow it?

The history of coffee development tells us that before the concept of specialty coffee emerged, unlike today's pursuit of regional flavors and traceability information, coffee drinkers sought more caffeine and strong coffee flavors, while growers pursued mass production to ensure stable income from coffee. Robusta has advantages that Arabica cannot compare with, which is its extremely strong survival ability.

Compared to Arabica, Robusta varieties have higher caffeine content, about 2.7%-4%, twice that of Arabica. Caffeine acts as a natural pesticide for plants, protecting them from most insect damage. From a cultivation perspective, Robusta coffee trees can tolerate high temperatures, cold, drought, and humidity, with high survival rates. Additionally, individual Robusta plants produce high yields and have strong environmental adaptability. They can generally be planted on low-altitude plains, allowing for mechanized unified management and harvesting, making their prices naturally cheaper. Therefore, the production cost required for Robusta cultivation is lower, making it more suitable for commercial mass production. Robusta's characteristics of high yield, fast maturity, and low management costs are very suitable for coffee-producing regions that compete based on volume. As the world's second-largest coffee-producing country - Vietnam - 80% of the coffee grown there is Robusta.

Furthermore, in recent years, the growing environment for coffee has increasingly deteriorated. For Arabica, which has extremely high requirements for growing environment altitude, terroir, and climate, this has invisibly become a very significant challenge. Robusta itself has extremely strong survival capabilities, so in terms of quality, yield, and flavor, there's no need to worry too much about climate and terroir having too much impact. This has also made many coffee professionals begin to slowly notice high-quality Robusta beans.

Does Robusta represent bad-tasting coffee?

Many people may know that specialty coffee refers to Arabica, but few know that Robusta also has specialty varieties. As we all know, coffee flavor is not only related to variety but also influenced by factors such as climate, altitude, and soil quality in different regions, as well as post-processing methods, roasting, and brewing, all of which can change the flavor direction of the coffee in our cups. In other words, with suitable cultivation and processing, Robusta can also exhibit positive flavors. India has a Royal Robusta coffee bean that, through exquisite cultivation and processing, exhibits an extremely clean flavor profile.

Robusta's overall flavor is rich and intense, and well-known premium Robusta beans are not inexpensive, making them unacceptable to everyone's budget. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with espresso made from Robusta blends. As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, deep-roasted Robusta produces abundant crema during extraction. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee wanted an espresso made from one of our espresso blend coffee beans to present rich, aromatic coffee crema, so we added 10% washed Robusta coffee beans. Combined with Colombian washed coffee beans (30%) + Brazilian natural pulped coffee (60%), this creates FrontStreet Coffee's commercial blend coffee beans. The resulting espresso has rich golden crema and nutty aromas. When tasting, you'll experience the burnt bitterness of coffee, but accompanied more by creamy, full-bodied texture. After swallowing, the bitterness dissipates, leaving a fragrant aftertaste.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

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