Characteristics and Uses of Robusta Coffee Beans: How to Blend Indonesian and Vietnamese Coffee Beans

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In specialty coffee beans, Arabica coffee beans are the most commonly heard. When it comes to Robusta coffee beans, they are not within the specialty coffee range. Robusta is probably only known for its poor flavor and its use in commercial beans. Today, FrontStreet Coffee will take everyone to get to know this coffee variety: Robusta.

The Origin of Robusta

Robusta originated in the Congo region of West Africa. We often compare Arabica with Robusta, but this is not actually rigorous because these two are not even at the same level botanically. Robusta actually belongs to the Canephora species, also known as Congo species, similar to how Typica belongs to the Arabica species. However, unfortunately, only one variety named Robusta within the Canephora species can be commercialized and is well-known, so now Robusta has almost replaced Canephora as the synonymous name for this species.

The Appearance of Robusta Coffee Beans

Robusta coffee beans have one bean per fruit. Robusta beans are relatively round and C-shaped; the center line is "1" shaped, and the raw beans have a yellowish-brown color.

Advantages of Robusta

Growing Conditions

The global coffee growing belt lies between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and Robusta is no exception. However, Robusta's growing conditions are not as demanding as Arabica's. Robusta can grow at lower altitudes and higher temperatures. It grows faster than Arabica and has higher tolerance to extreme weather conditions. Robusta is widely cultivated in countries like Vietnam, Brazil, and India. Hainan, China also grows Robusta.

Insect Resistance

Robusta's caffeine content ranges from 2.7% to 4%, twice that of Arabica. Caffeine, as a natural pesticide for plants, can protect it from most insect damage.

Disease Resistance

We generally know that Arabica has 44 chromosomes while Robusta has 22. Generally, the more chromosomes, the higher the genetic complexity and the more advanced, but Arabica is self-pollinating while Robusta is cross-pollinating. Pollination involves the genetic process.

Under normal circumstances, cross-pollinated plants have higher quality—offspring produced through cross-pollination possess genetic traits from both parent plants, which can likely generate new characteristics to help them survive in changing environments. Therefore, self-pollinating Arabica is quite fragile; during continuous reproduction, its genes become increasingly uniform (without involvement of foreign genes). Thus, if certain diseases (such as leaf rust) appear, they could potentially wipe out coffee plants with the same genes. The strength of Robusta lies in its ability to continuously change genes to adapt to the environment.

Disadvantages of Robusta

Flavor: Compared to Arabica, Robusta has higher caffeine, amino acid, and chlorogenic acid content. Chlorogenic acid is the source of bitterness, so Robusta naturally lacks the elegant aromatic flavor unique to Arabica beans. Instead, it has a richer, deeper taste with flavors of walnuts, peanuts, hazelnuts, wheat, grains, and even pungent earthy notes. Because of Robusta's inferior flavor, it is often rejected by the specialty coffee community and is generally used for blending with Arabica or for instant coffee.

Robusta beans are also widely used in espresso blends. Just like FrontStreet Coffee's commercial blend coffee beans, which consist of 30% Colombian Arabica, 60% Brazilian Arabica, and 10% Robusta. The Robusta beans provide rich coffee oils, making the flavor rich and mellow, with caramel sweetness, nutty and cocoa-like flavors, dark chocolate notes, balanced sweet and sour, with a slight bitterness, and a lasting aftertaste.

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