The Three Major Types of Coffee Beans You Must Know: Robusta Coffee Beans are Like a Tough Man

FrontStreet Coffee - An Introduction to the Three Major Coffee Varieties

Arabica and Robusta are two very important varieties in the commercial coffee industry. Arabica beans grow best at an altitude of 3,000 feet, offering superior coffee quality with an intense aroma, though their caffeine content is only half that of Robusta beans. Arabica accounts for 80% of the value of global coffee trade. Their excellent flavor and aroma make them the only coffee that can be consumed on its own. The world-renowned Blue Mountain coffee is made from Arabica beans.

Robusta beans grow in lower-altitude areas, are easy to cultivate, yield heavily and resist pests and disease, but they carry a woody, pungent smell. They can be chosen when inexpensive coffee is needed or when a higher caffeine content is required. Robusta beans have a distinctive fragrance and bitterness, with a caffeine content far exceeding Arabica's.

The main Robusta-producing countries include Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, India and Uganda. Among them, Vietnam is the world's largest exporter of Robusta coffee. Vietnamese coffee, often brought home as a souvenir by visitors to Vietnam and also known as Vietnamese-style au lait coffee, is made with Robusta beans grown there; a generous amount of condensed milk is added to mask the strong bitterness. One wonders whether it is because Vietnam was once a French colony that Robusta became so widely cultivated to supply French dark-roast needs.

Because coffee extracted from Robusta beans has an aroma similar to burnt wheat and tastes strongly bitter, earthy and moldy, it has been nicknamed the "Robu" flavor. Combined with its relatively low price and strong bitterness - qualities indispensable to commercial coffee - its widespread use in instant coffee has damaged its reputation even further.

Components of Robusta Green Beans:

1. High caffeine content (more than twice that of Arabica);

2. High chlorogenic acid content;

3. Low sugar content, including sucrose;

4. Slightly higher protein and amino acid content;

5. Low lipid content.

Knowledge point:

Robusta beans can serve not only as a "price adjuster" but also to enhance the body of a coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you appreciate a bean that balances acidity, bitterness, sweetness and aroma without any single note dominating, the classic answer is Arabica's most famous heirloom. FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is the highest grade of Jamaican Blue Mountain, from the long-established Clifton Mount Estate, where coffee has been grown and processed since the mid-18th century, around 1750. The farm sits at an average of 1,310.64 meters (4,300 feet), and its altitude, the mild afternoon cloud that shades the trees, plentiful sunlight and mineral-rich soil all give the trees ideal growing conditions and draw out the ripening of the cherries. It is medium-dark roasted to highlight a rich body and the classic bitter-then-sweet character. The flavor is very clean and complex, very gentle, with chocolate sweetness and a very strong body: sweet, acidic and bitter in perfect proportion, essentially without harshness, with only a moderate and polished acidity and a long fruity finish.

To get the most from it, FrontStreet suggests a Kono dripper, which reinforces the full body. Use 15 g for one serving, rest the beans 4-7 days from the roast date (counting the roast day as day one) and grind slightly coarser than you would for a light roast, roughly white-sugar size. Brew with water at 87-88°C and a 1:15 ratio; water that is too hot is a common cause of a scorched, bitter cup, while water that is too cool leaves the coffee flat and lifeless. Pour in three stages: a 30 g bloom for 30 seconds, then a slow, small circular pour with a vertical stream to 120 g, then a pour to 225 g with slightly faster water and circling to avoid clogging the filter and over-extracting. A well-known sign of authenticity, incidentally, is the traditional wooden barrel the green beans arrive in - 15, 45 and 70 kg sizes carry the lot details and are themselves markers of genuine Blue Mountain.