I decided to try a small bag of mostly robusta coffee after a pleasant surprise at a Vietnamese restaurant.
It was, and is fantastic. It is a major flavour departure from Arabica so for those of you set in your ways, it might not be for you. The flavour is hard to describe, but the taste and aroma are very strong and immediately recognizable. The smell is very sweet and earthy. The flavour is like … spiced stonefruit.
The restaurant served it with sweetened condensed milk and it was amazing. At home I drink it black.
If you’re in for something different, worth a try.
Holy thread ressurection batman but anyway…
On holidays in the south of France, found 100% robusta in the supermarket. What a revelation.
It seems to be less popular down here than it might be (often on special offer in the supermarkets and a bit cheaper than arabica) but I am happy to drink it (we have a few bricks stashed away for taking home as I don’t recall seeing it readily available in the UK)
It’s a very forgiving brew, great aroma and flavour, just don’t expect arabica!
I tasted it alongside some arabica beans some years ago and it tasted like burnt rubber.
I also tried Vietnamese coffee at a place in Europe and that was even worse: cannot fathom drinking that liquid without heaps of sugar and/or milk! I hope that’s not how it always tastes… :)
This is sadly always my experience with robusta. Ive tried to like it. I have had “specialty” robusta on a few occasions from roasters who had a reputation for doing nice things with it.
It’s just not my bag. If/when arabica succumbs to climate change, I will probably stop drinking coffee
I don’t get any rubber but taste is subjective. I’m quite fond of it, though I don’t see it replacing my arabica. ;)
While I agree with you on the burnt rubber, I very much like Robusta to be part of my “bar” Espresso roast for Cappuccino. It just somehow reminds me of Southern Italy. 😁
Also, there are various Robusta origins and it depends on the roast. If you have black and oily beans and only Robusta… Yep, burnt rubber.
Oh Robusta has for sure its place in espresso blends: I actually prefer a good 20-30% blend for cappuccino, as 100% arabica is a bit thinner and gets a bit lost with the foamy milk :)
Robusta has more caffeine than Arabica. It’s also not as smooth and can be very bitter, especially the lighter roasts. Most store coffee (cans, bags, bricks) by big names (folgers, maxwellhouse, etc) are Robusta unless the can states 100% Arabica.
Robusta can be a good coffee if you can get a really dark roast (espresso, french, italian) and mix it 50/50 with a dark Arabica roast.
The Sang Tao pictured above is a mix, but I can’t see the ratio of Robusta to Arabica.
My non coffee drinking family who hate my coffee say this smells really good. My 12yo daughter thought it smelled almost like hot chocolate.
That sounds tasty!
Something something Vietnamese coffee phin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_filter#Permanent_filters
The cheaper Lavazza blends that don’t mentiom Arabica are also robusta and are pretty good for espresso.
I was wondering why there was a coffee bag in space for a while there.
My granite countertop? Lol.
Love robusta. It’s so incredible. Of course individual roaster makes a huge difference within varieties.
Here in Vietnam, there has been a upsurge of specialty coffee production in the last decade or so. In the last 5 years it seems that it has expanded into specialty robusto also plus liberica and some heirloom varieties.
Some of it is surprisingly tasty.
Interesting. I’m going to search for this now, too.
Sidenote, I don’t understand the Wright Brothers airplane on the front lol
Me neither, but the back is a picture of a white, rich family walking on the tarmac to their private jet, so just “premium” branding of sorts, I think.
That is hilarious!
i recently decided to try robusta for the first time as well, and i like it very much. i’ve been using beans from Café Justo for 22 years but had never considered trying their robusta beans before now.
100%.
Bold choice. Mine was a blend. How do you describe pure?
i only ever drink it with caramel sauce and cream in it, or in coffee smoothies. it’s really good though, i dig it.
Also a big robusta fan after visiting Vietnam years ago, though I tend not to drink it often nowadays as I’m very careful about my caffeine intake. Interesting that you take it black - same here but I’ve never met anyone else that does and whenever I asked for it like that in Vietnam I got very strange looks! The best one I had out there was sweetened and frothed with egg white - James Hoffman would keel over backwards but I thought it was great. I get that it doesn’t have the depth of Arabica but as an essentially different drink I’ve never understood the bad rap it gets.
Arabica is overrated. Do you put lemon in your cocoa? If you do, drink Arabica.
