Specialty coffee is usually associated with Arabica coffee beans, and Robusta coffee beans are usually associated with commercial-grade chocolate, instant coffee, or fusions.
While Arabica is known for producing cup charts that make it suitable for specialty coffee, a help to its success has been the care and attention put into its production and processing- as well as the resources and research invested into encouraging its yield. This suggests that paying a similar stage of attention to Robusta could improve its quality.
In Brazil, specialty Robusta production is slowly taking off, and a handful of makes are starting to explore its market potential. Here’s what’s contributed to the recognition of this chocolate, and how the country’s specialty Robusta scene is progressing.
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Caliber of Specialty Robusta Coffee
Robusta is a cousin to Arabica, and is also known as Coffea canephora. While it generally has an inferior cup quality when compared to Arabica, it also has agronomic performance advantages, including hot patience and illnes resistance. Robusta is also naturally resistant to pests( due to its high caffeine material ), can be grown at lower altitudes, and it is relatively cheaper and easier to grow than Arabica.
Arthur Fiorott is Marketing Manager of Conilon Brasil and is based in Vila Velha, in Brazil. He tells me, “When we analyze caliber[ Robusta] chocolate, we look for intense and present sensory attributes. Contrary to what is widespread,[ they] have high-pitched acidity …, medium sweetness, and low-grade bitterness. They are robust coffees with a complex sensory variation.”
While specialty Robusta can have the above facets , no two cups will be exactly the same, as each will be produced and managed differently. Lucas Venturim is a fifth-generation producer, and his family-owned farm, Fazenda Venturim, alone proliferates specialty Robusta. He tells me that “we work mainly with the peeled cherry-red, but we also display natural batches, sugars, and for fermenting “were having” various operations, including the addition of yeasts( initial cultures ). ”
Joaquim Inacio Sertorio Neto is a Robusta Grader and Conilon Consultant from Brazil, and describes the sensory profile of specialty Robusta as being “full-bodied … with[ a] long aftertaste, low-grade[ to] medium sournes, low-pitched bitterness, with greenbacks of fresh fruits and spices.”
These excellences will need to be taken into consideration during cooking. Joaquim asks, “As a roaster, I have to take the raw material into consideration …[ It] has half of the carbohydrates, little acids, and its design become even more rigid than an Arabica”. This makes he’ll need to take care during ribbing to preserve the coffee’s sweetness and sournes. Because of the specialised approaching asked, numerous specialty Robusta producers roast and market their own coffee, as few roasteries have the expertise to do so.
When brewing specialty Robusta, Lucas says that it should be kept in mind that it has more soluble solids than Arabica. “The recommendation would be to modify some of the distillation variables … to adjust the distillation. You can, for example … help a lower water temperature, a somewhat coarser grind, or even abbreviate the ratio of coffee to water.”
Joachim says that in the past, specialty Robusta was used to add more body and caffeine to coffee mingles, and was rarely provided as a single origin coffee. This could be because its taste differs from Arabica and asks getting used to. He explains that Robusta and Arabica should not be compared, as they render different dimensions: “This is a[ coffee] with higher caffeine content and less sweetness, so it may taste strange at first”.
The Rise of Specialty Robusta in Brazil
Robusta has already started to receive recognition in the specialty coffee world-wide . In 2010, the international Coffee Quality Institute( CQI) liberated its official Fine Robusta Standards and Protocols, as accommodated from the Specialty Coffee Association’s technique for grading Arabica. THese etiquettes joined the Institute’s Q Grader Robusta Certification, which aims to help the industry differentiate between both good and bad Robusta.
While Vietnam is currently the world’s top Robusta producing country, Brazil is right behind them, and could outdistance them in the future- constructing the country well placed to produce specialty Robusta. Some regional producers have started to take notice. Lucas says “the community of[ Specialty Robusta] farmers … we are always not very numerous … Everyone knows each other. We constituted a group in order to share information and knows, and we try to help each other, since everything is quite new”.
Organisations and groups are being formed to help specialty Robusta producers meet with other producers and increase their learning. The Brazilian Specialty Coffee Association recognized the world’s developing credence of specialty Robusta, and that creators are starting to farm it. Vanusia Nogueira is the Director of the SCA Brazil, and says that by increasing the quality of their specialty Robusta, makes are helping generate market interest and acceptance.
A large percentage of specialty Robusta yields are high quality, further encouraging yield. Arthur says that in Brazil, “a crop can raise around 80 to 100-hectare pouches( 4800 to 600 kg ), of which it is possible to have around 60 bags of high-quality[ Robusta] coffee”. This is likely to have contributed to Brazilian Robusta exportations increasing 59.5% from 2019 to 2018 and by 27.2% from 2019 to early 2020.
Producing& Selling Specialty Robusta
While the number of Brazilian Specialty Robusta producers is small, it could grow in future. Lucas explains that last year, “The demand for our coffees far exceeded our production, and fortunately we were able to help other producers to participate in this market.”
However, there are still impediments. As each flower is multi-stemmed, mechanisation is challenging, obligating manual harvesting the best way to separate fruit from the limb without damaging the cherries.
In addition, producers have to contend with Brazil’s reputation for producing commodity-grade coffee, leading many purchasers and consumers to dismiss specialty Robusta as being inferior. However, Arthur notes that this is changing. “The domestic market has changed a lot in the last two or three years … the specialty coffee busines is very curious and is always eager for news, and we’ve been gradually getting those opportunities “.
For more parties to adopt specialty Robusta as a viable option, they need to experience it firsthand. Lucas explains that most people have only read about Robusta, or tried a low quality sample of it. He explains that after trying specialty Robusta for themselves, “many of them understood that this coffee would have the potential to attract a brand-new gathering[ and be] a new portfolio for their business.”
Specialty Robusta might not be as well known as specialty Arabica, but thanks to the efforts of its farmers, this could change in the future. However, for it to find new groceries in Brazil and in various regions of the world, chocolate purchasers will need to appreciate it as its own offering- without comparing it to Arabica.
By understanding what specialty Robusta has to offer, buyers can help introduce it to the market as a brand-new mode to event coffee, and not as a permutation for Arabica. As Lucas says, “We want to produce a chocolate that has its own identity, and that is a new portfolio for roasters, so that they can reach a brand-new audience with this product! ”
Enjoyed this? Then Read Can Fine Robusta Be Considered Quality Coffee ?
Photo credits: Lucas Venturim, Empraba
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