[HN Gopher] Plant of the Month: Robusta Coffee (2021)
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Plant of the Month: Robusta Coffee (2021)
Author : Tomte
Score : 54 points
Date : 2022-05-28 08:19 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (daily.jstor.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (daily.jstor.org)
| bigDinosaur wrote:
| Instant coffee is like canned tuna: actually it can taste alright
| or even good, but what a shame it came to this.
| draw_down wrote:
| 0des wrote:
| Oh that's a good one :)
| madmax108 wrote:
| HN coffee afficionados, if you are in a particularly experimental
| mood, do check out Liberica coffee beans[1], which is a whole
| different taste palette compared to Arabica and Robusta. In
| recent years, there's been a bit of a revival happening for
| Liberica strains across the coffee-sphere and I while I can't
| guarentee you'll love Liberica (it's been very hit or miss with
| friends with many finding it too earthy/woody), I can assure that
| it'll be an experience in and of itself
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea_liberica
| hammock wrote:
| Where do you get yours from? I looked on Amazon and didn't
| really find an option
| kaetemi wrote:
| Liberica coffee goes by the name Barako in the Philippines.
| Might help with the search.
|
| They sell it in large bags here on the local markets.
|
| (No idea what for, though. Pretty much everyone here just
| drinks sugary instant coffees...)
| ThePhysicist wrote:
| My local coffee roaster sells a "Sicilian style" 100 % Robusta
| espresso roast. Twice as much caffeine as Arabica, really strong
| stuff. I can't stand it permanently though, gives me too much
| anxious energy. I prefer 70/30 (Arabica/Robusta) roasts, which
| still have the nice Robusta flavor but a more sane amount of
| caffeine.
| Semaphor wrote:
| I prefer my coffee black, with a decent amount of Robusta
| (method: ~12h full immersion cold brew in summer, 4 minute full
| immersion french-press otherwise), dark roast. Robusta adds
| something that is simply lacking otherwise.
| Rechtsstaat wrote:
| I can't wait until it gets warmer, immersion cold brew is sooo
| good :)
|
| It is rather sweet with arabica, is that less so with robusta?
| How would you compare the taste?
| mypastself wrote:
| When I got myself an espresso machine, I experimented with
| various settings and types of beans, all kinds of single-origin
| specialty-store gourmet stuff, 5 or 6 different arabica/robusta
| ratios...
|
| And I came to the conclusion I liked a specific brand of 100%
| dark-roasted robusta the most, by far. And I like it black.
|
| Now I have to live with the fact that I'm a philistine, a lover
| of bad coffee, and an enjoyer of burnt tire smell. But hey, at
| least I can get the stuff I like on the cheap. More discerning
| types can have their expensive hipster lemon juice (which I also
| enjoy, but to a much lesser extent).
| [deleted]
| baldeagle wrote:
| I came by my love of robusta in northern Italy / southern
| Switzerland, where the local roaster made a blend. Most other
| coffees just lacked the pizazz.
|
| https://www.amazon.com/Caff%C3%A8-Chicco-Tradition-Whole-100...
| mypastself wrote:
| Absolutely. My particular favorite brand happens to be
| Italian.
| Moto7451 wrote:
| There is good Robusta to be had and well respected espresso
| focused blends on occasion have robusta in them for body and
| crema production. A lot of "high caffeine" coffees are also
| high robusta content.
|
| Personally I find Malabar and Vietnamese Robusta completely
| acceptable for espresso.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| I have tried a few pure robusta coffees and I always find them
| lacking. They all have that initial kick, which I may like (or
| not, some coffee is just terrible), but after that, nothing.
| All flavors are gone, the rest is like water with some chemical
| bittering agent added, which I find particularly frustrating.
|
| That's why I always drink my robusta as a blend, Italian style.
| I still get the initial kick of Robusta and its characteristic
| bitterness but Arabica is still there to fill in the gaps.
|
| But I admit I didn't try that many pure Robustas, maybe some
| don't suffer that problem.
| uhtred wrote:
| Good for you. Personally I prefer my coffee to taste of berries
| or golden raisins or milk chocolate. I'm willing to pay a bit
| more it. I guess that makes me a hipster.
| mypastself wrote:
| I kid because I love. There are a lot of excellent arabica
| beans. Guatemala was my top choice among them...
| uhtred wrote:
| Guatemalan coffee is one of my faves too. And Colombian.
| M_bara wrote:
| Let me throw you a curve ball. For espresso try a 50-50 blend
| of gourmet and espresso from these chaps [1], it's amazing.
| Elgon is also pretty good as a French press coffee. Not
| affiliated with them, just a fan.
|
| 1. https://www.springvalleycoffee.com/orderusa
| 6keZbCECT2uB wrote:
| First off, what makes you happy is its own reason. I think what
| makes these communities tick isn't about going for what's
| fashionable, but enthusiasm however that might take form.
|
| Personally, I started liking really dark roasts in a French
| Press which pushes it even further. But, I learned that what I
| was looking for were chocolate and earth notes, and that the
| roast wasn't an especially good predictor of the intensity of
| those flavors. I had good coffee gear specialty shops that did
| flights for purchasing beans, and Starbucks Reserve (with some
| hits and misses) for getting more variety in flights.
| nkozyra wrote:
| > But, I learned that what I was looking for were chocolate
| and earth notes, and that the roast wasn't an especially good
| predictor of the intensity of those flavors.
|
| And in fact, dark roasts are more likely to obscure those
| flavors.
|
| Too light a roast and you'll get too much floral/grass, too
| dark and you'll get too much of a burned flavor, for obvious
| reasons.
|
| The brew method also plays a big part, which is why dark
| (ish) roasts do better with cold brew than hot brews for
| pulling out the beans flavors.
|
| I typically do a medium roast with no oily sheen to them and
| it serves me well. A honey-wash might take more roasting
| while keeping its flavor, though I haven't figured out why.
|
| Roasting at home also saves a ton of money and the beans can
| last two years in storage versus a few weeks post-roast.
| jcla1 wrote:
| > I typically do a medium roast with no oily sheen to them
| and it serves me well.
|
| I thought an oily/shiny appearance of coffee beans was due
| to them being roasted too long ago and then some of the
| coffee bean oils "leaking" out of the beans. Is this not
| the case, i.e. something that might even be controllable
| with the roasting process, even something desirable in some
| cases?
| barrkel wrote:
| The appearance of oil on the surface comes from roasting
| beans to the second crack:
|
| https://mtpak.coffee/coffee-roasting-basics-guide-to-
| first-s...
|
| Oily beans are dark roasted and have a different flavour
| profile. If you get cheap supermarket espresso beans,
| they're usually roasted to this point. I think it gives a
| more consistent product given input variability, varietal
| differences are no longer so apparent.
| ajmurmann wrote:
| I've only been roasting for a few months but the
| correlation seems to be with how dark you roast not with
| how long ago the roast happened. I roasted some beans a
| little over a week ago and they were covered in lots of
| oil one or two days later.
| nkozyra wrote:
| I don't find much support for it in the coffee snob
| community, but everyone has their own preferences.
| richiebful1 wrote:
| Do you have any recommended resources for getting into home
| roasting? I've always been interested in trying it out, but
| I don't know where to source green beans without paying
| more than craft roasted coffee.
| nkozyra wrote:
| Start with your oven. It's a totally acceptable option
| just make sure you have good ventilation or your smoke
| detectors will go crazy.
|
| 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes (you can eyeball the
| beans will get you started).
|
| I've used a few vendors for the green beans but will
| recommend https://www.coffeebeancorral.com/ (no
| affiliation). I usually buy beans in the $40 (shipping) /
| per 5 lbs.
|
| You'll have to deal with chaff but as you go forward you
| can get into more elaborate options. And to be honest I
| end up grinding a not insignificant amount of chaff (it
| doesn't affect flavor).
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| _Start with your oven. It 's a totally acceptable option
| just make sure you have good ventilation or your smoke
| detectors will go crazy._
|
| This is bad advice. I really can't recommend this.
|
| If you've ever played with home rosters with larger
| capacities, you'll quickly find out just how much smoke
| gets generated. It's a sticky and oily smoke too.
|
| _You don't want that in your home._
|
| Either you're outside, or buy something like a Behmor
| that has an after burner.
| 2020aj wrote:
| If you're on the east coast: happymug.
|
| As far as roasting equipment... I actually recommend
| starting with stovetop/pan roasting. You may struggle
| more to get an even roast vs buying an appliance or using
| a popper, but it's cheap, and pan roasting heats via
| conduction (not convection) which is the de-facto method
| of most roasteries.
| cproctor wrote:
| Sourcing: Sweet Maria's. Roasting: Follow their
| suggestions and buy an air popper at Goodwill. If you get
| a flimsy one, don't roast more than one batch in a row or
| the machine's innards will melt. The one caveat is you
| need somewhere outside where nobody will object to acrid
| smoke.
| HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
| I tried it some time ago with a pound of green beans and
| a hot-air popcorn popper. Beans were bought somewhere on
| Amazon and I already had the popper. It was cheaper than
| buying freshly roasted beans at my local coffeeshop and
| tasted about the same, and it was a nice experiment, but
| not something I'd continue with. Not enough benefit for
| the time spent.
| ImprovedSilence wrote:
| It sounds like I could be in the same boat. What brand of
| coffee did you settle on?
| slothtrop wrote:
| I notice that medium roast is trendiest among the snobs right
| now. Some shops won't even serve dark. I understand that dark
| roasts can verge on one-note, but personally I like coffee to
| taste like coffee. Often times what the shop serves is so
| lightly roasted and brewed they practically taste like tea,
| with no body. It's fruity and acidic, which can be a little
| more varied, but personally dissatisfying.
|
| For espressos, the full-city / medium-dark roast is maybe my
| favorite right now, and for other brews anything between a
| medium that's a little on the dark side and a dark roast.
| Acidic is fine, but it needs that body and deep flavor.
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| If you want the "classic coffee" taste, find a blend or
| single origin with Brazilian beans.
| tauntz wrote:
| I'm in the same boat - went to a coffee retailer here that
| sells mostly to restaurants etc and I did a blind test of all
| the various brands and blends they had available. I liked 100%
| Robusta the most and I've been drinking that for years now.
| Most of other coffee drinkers I know are not too fond of my
| coffee though.
| suction wrote:
| No, you are not. You are just not afraid to go against the
| majority belief saying "Arabica coffee bean is better", which
| is purely based on marketing and no objective measure
| whatsoever.
|
| I actually dislike the Arabica taste when it's overpowering the
| Robusta taste - it just sour and disagreeable. A blend of about
| 10%-30% Arabica can be interesting, but I would not touch
| anything beyond that anymore.
|
| And I also enjoy the 100%-Robusta espressos (like Borbone
| makes) very much, especially when I'm after a chocolatey type
| flavour with lots of thick, dark crema.
|
| "Arabica = luxury" vs. "Robusta = low grade" might serve the
| bottom line of coffee planters and producers, but it's just as
| bad as saying "wine made with grape type A is worse than wine
| made with grape type B". It always depends on the source
| material and the execution.
| xyzzy_plugh wrote:
| You're no philistine. Your palate is sophisticated. Most people
| don't even like the taste of black coffee!
|
| You probably also like peated whiskies and high ester spirits.
|
| You might even like this 17yo rum[0]:
|
| > Initial aromas are of petrol, an old machinists shop with
| vulcanizing shit going on in the background, rubber, phenols,
| iodine. Gradually fruits emerge, all dark and sullen and sulky.
| Plums, blackberries, dates, plus sweet caramel and molasses.
| Some herbs - dill, rosemary. And behind it all coils the
| familiar scent of fresh hot tar being laid down in the summer
| sun.
|
| > The taste is very similar. Like the nose, the first notes are
| of an old bottom-house car repair shop where the oil has soaked
| into the sand, and rubber tyres and inner tubes are being
| repaired everywhere, and the occasionally pungent raw petrol
| aromas makes you feel like you're passing an oil refinery.
|
| [0] https://thelonecaner.com/r0866/
| jcadam wrote:
| I've found it's much cheaper to have an unrefined palate. I
| buy whatever (whole bean) coffee is on sale :D
|
| Same goes for wine.
| cyxxon wrote:
| I mostly brew 100% Robusta or a 60/40 blend as well, after some
| long testing, I just like it better with the machines in my
| home. And yes, people look at me weirdly even though I am not
| in the US, and according to the article people should be used
| to it "here"... What I find weird as well is how the article
| basically conflates Robusta and Instant Coffee... instant
| tastes bad because of the way it is produced, not the bean,
| which should be clear because, well, enough people actually use
| Robusta in their non-instant coffee recipies.
| 2muchcoffeeman wrote:
| Perhaps the US larger buying power means you can get a more
| steady supply of quality robusta. But in other places getting
| your hands on a quality robusta is fairly hard. It tends to
| have a single note. They are generally boring on their own if
| you want a more complex cup. But the better body and crema
| makes it a good addition to a blend.
|
| You're wrong about the beans themselves not resulting in a
| bad cup. Go and find a high quality specialty green and roast
| it e.g a Cup of Excellence winner. A really good green is
| much more forgiving to roast and a schmuck like me can get a
| decent cup. A cheaper bean is more difficult. And typically
| it's easiest to just roast a bit darker past medium to start
| hitting the cocoa and caramel notes.
| WilTimSon wrote:
| I'm not one to claim that anything that goes against the grain
| is good, but in this case I'd say there's 0 reason to chastise
| your taste. Not only did you do extensive tests to see what
| exactly you like, you've also managed to find something to
| appreciate in a largely dismissed thing. In my book, that's a
| great thing all around - the spirit of discovery mixed with a
| unique palate.
|
| PS. But I'll keep drinking my hipster juice, simplicity is
| enough for me.
| mypastself wrote:
| Hey, I'm happy with my results. Just don't tell the guys at
| my local specialty stores...
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| Vietnam produces a massive amount of coffee, most of it Robusta.
| Their yields are considerably higher than other countries.
| simonebrunozzi wrote:
| From memory, 2nd biggest coffee producer in the world after
| Brazil.
| FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
| Good old Cafe Bustelo regular is 100% robusta. Inexpensive and
| makes a good brew, especially with some cream as it is more
| bitter and earthy than what most palates are used to.
|
| Vietnamese coffee is also usually 100% robusta (they grow most of
| the worlds supply).
| zahma wrote:
| Robusta has a higher resistance to insects due to the higher
| caffeine content. The caffeine that poisons them is what gives us
| a nice intoxicating buzz. It grows at lower altitudes thanks to
| this trait. With climate change, it's unsurprising that this is
| becoming a more common crop. The coffee snob me doesn't agree
| that it makes a coffee beverage equivalent to arabica. Maybe
| roasters will innovate a way around that. Ditto with instant,
| though it's useful to me to find a good roaster's version when I
| travel.
|
| The environmentalist me also appreciates that arabica supports
| better biodiversity, and it's a shame that farms are tearing down
| arabica plants to replace with robusta.[1,2] Climate change is
| wreaking havoc. In places like Ethiopia it's especially
| disconcerting since these heirlooms are native species. In other
| parts of the world as disparate as Indonesia or El Salvador, it's
| not too surprising that climate change is exposing the crop's
| inability to withstand environmental stress because these were
| imported during colonial times.
|
| 1-https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2020/06/04/why-bio...
| 2-https://www.reuters.com/world/the-great-reboot/if-your-coffe...
| cassepipe wrote:
| Thanks for the information. That's why my worst coffee
| experience was with Robusta. My heart kept beating super fast
| for the whole day to the point I got concerned.
| bumby wrote:
| > _The environmentalist me also appreciates that arabica
| supports better biodiversity_
|
| Can you elaborate? The article seems to point to the opposite,
| when arabica was nearly wiped out around the world by coffee
| leaf fungus as a result of the bio-homogeneity
| margalabargala wrote:
| "Supports better biodiversity" refers to the biodiversity of
| the other animals and plants that grow around the coffee
| trees in the ecosystem, not the diversity of the coffee trees
| themselves.
| harel wrote:
| If you live in London, Black Sheep sell high quality Robusta
| beans. They are very very good and work for different styles (I
| usually grind and drink as "Turkish").
| mcdonje wrote:
| Death Wish Coffee has been using robusta in blends with arabica
| for a decade because of the higher caffeine content.
|
| https://www.deathwishcoffee.com/blogs/coffee-talk/the-rise-o...
| 0des wrote:
| I drink coffee for the utility of it, and as such want to try
| to like their coffee but every time I get a cup there's an off
| taste to it, and for not much more potency to justify it, so I
| never end up buying the bag which is a little pricey near me.
|
| I've found another coffee that tastes better, is shipped
| fresher, and has a much higher efficacy. Its called Seattle's
| Best #5. A bag is about 5 bucks. This stuff will have you
| vibrating off the desk.
| sgt wrote:
| There's no way a good bag of coffee beans that is also
| ethical costs $5
| [deleted]
| 0des wrote:
| Bless your little heart. A twice dipped teabag will get you
| through the day just fine, I'm sure.
| robinsoh wrote:
| > Bless your little heart. A twice dipped teabag will get
| you through the day just fine, I'm sure.
|
| What did you intend to communicate to the parent
| commenter? That the parent point is invalid?
| 0des wrote:
| No, it is a statement that if 'ethical' is where the
| topic has shifted to, then to be most ethical, start
| brewing your tea twice. Ethical is not one of the
| qualities originally listed, which were potency,
| freshness and price.
| RussianCow wrote:
| Serious question: At that point, why not take a caffeine pill
| or drink the powder? It's likely far cheaper and more
| efficient if you only drink coffee for the buzz.
| 0des wrote:
| I was hoping someone would ask this, because it's a path
| I've crossed several times: Not all caffeine is equal,
| there is an entourage effect with coffee not present in
| anhydrous caffeine distillate.
| astrange wrote:
| Coffee and tea have a lot of secondary ingredients that are
| beneficial in other ways. Or not beneficial - coffee has a
| lot of good minerals in it but also the oils and acidity
| aren't good for IBS sufferers and IIRC are bad for the
| heart. Paper filters or Swedish coffee (that one where you
| make it on the stove with eggshells) help there.
|
| Just for stimulation though, there's also theanine and
| theobromine you're missing for a better high.
| mcdonje wrote:
| I've actually never tried their coffee. I just remember
| hearing about them using robusta for the caffeine content and
| finding that interesting.
| dav_Oz wrote:
| I really enjoy blonde roasted single origin 100% Robusta beans
| (like this _Coffea canephora_ from India [0]) if served with care
| the deep richness of the flavour is unparalleled. But since I 'm
| quite sensitive to caffeine the rush of a Robusta cofeee can be
| otherworldly and quite uncomfortable and after my body adapts I
| can barely feel the hit of the omnipresent Arabica coffees and
| I'm literally dependent on a Robusta hit to kickstart my day,
| now. So, I decided some time ago to forgo their excellent taste.
| As a replacement for their rich taste I found out that some cocoa
| beans (as 100% chocolate) go extremely well with the smoothness
| of Ethopian Arabica beans (Yirgacheffe) from my favourite local
| roast house.
|
| [0]https://onan.be/farms/palthope-estate-india-b-b-chengappa/
| littlevache wrote:
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(page generated 2022-05-31 23:02 UTC)