The truth about Robusta coffee

I've been spending hundreds per months for years now going to Starbucks, Peet's, Better Buzz for an Americano with some milk in it. To save money and travel time, I recently start using instant coffee at home....I like instant coffee a lot. So, I bought a generic store brand organic coffee, and I bought Trader Joe's 100% Arabica coldbrew instant coffee. I actually prefer the generic stuff with the robusta in it. The flavor is stronger and better. Slight bitterness, but I like the flavor. I don't use hot coffee either, it just goes straight into cold milk.

Honestly, I think most people's prejudice against instant coffee was due to pouring boiling water onto it and scorching / ruining their coffee, and blaming the coffee.

It’s all come to preference i think. I enjoyed robusta so much and found arabica too sour for me

People bashing Robusta have no idea what they are talking about. They simply don't know how to use it. Grown up in southern Europe just next to Italy. People almost exclusively blend Robusta and Arabica at about 20%-80%. Pure Arabica tastes like coffee flavoured tea, weak, no kick, anemic. Good luck finding espresso in Italy 100% Arabica.

tastes like shit, but damn am i awake thw whle day with one cup.

I mixed robusta and arabica in moka pot and it taste amazing ❤️

The scientific name is literally not important or really useful at all. Its better to call it robusta

Dear White People:
Robusta is horrible. Please don’t buy it or make it trendy.
Please Keep buying Kona and Blue Mountain,
and especially geisha.
Yes!
ONLY BUY GEISHA!!!

Robusta is bad! Please don’t like it and make it expensive.

Hey just a cheap brick at the arab import shop on the mount here and its actually pretty good.
Algerian made, 100% robusta, 3% sugar, its good, only really noticed the burnt rubber taste while looking for it after hearing it had that because I couldn't really see it until I found about it.
Then I asked myself "wtf these people thinking, are they out there drinking rubber infusions xD ?"
Its pretty good so far, and that brick is cheap and I can actively put it in mixes with other stuff or cacao, been pretty good so far in my cheap coffee drip machine but hey, I like that kind of coffee so far.

I’ve had 100% Ugandan Robusta as an espresso and it’s the best I’ve had! Like he says when treated as a specialty coffee the flavour notes are incredible.

Sadly, robusta has definitely caught on. Used to be able to buy it in a Walmart brand for cheap. Now I can't find Robusta for less than about $15 for a small amount. I have a sleep disorder, so coffee is my blood. Haven't found a medication that helps yet. Wish I could still find Robusta for cheap somewhere, but I think those days are gone.

like this video 😊

So Robusta starts with nearly twice the caffeine, then you have to up the ratio to make it more palatable, resulting in nearly 3x the caffeine. How to you imagine that can be enjoyed without throwing your brain's ADP receptors out of wack?

You're afraid to swallow because it's late in the day, but at nearly 3x the caffeine it doesn't matter when you drink it the negative consequences will be far more pronounced (e.g. sleep disturbances, hormonal fluctuations, anxiety, headaches and irregular heart rhythms). Plus it already starts far more bitter, and you're making it even more bitter.

In short, Robusta is awful no matter how you twist things. It has way too much caffeine, is far too bitter and will never have the pleasant flavors provided by a balance of sugar, lipids etc. that Arabica has. When everything is done right, including growing, roasting and preparing, and in the most optimal way (espresso), Robusta's flavor is tolerable at best and it ends up with ~3x the caffeine. Again, Robusta is aweful and its reputation is well deserved. It's simply not a viable alternative to Arabica.

Robusta Coffee Got more caffeine And less flavor
Rebecca coffee got More flavor and less caffeine
I do like Robista🥰😋

Yes i really wanna try robusta coffee

interesting video! I would be interested to try roasting and brewing some robusta beans. I have not seen robusta beans for sale to home-coffee roasting people.

My favorite coffee is 50% Robusta, it has a very rich beany/nutty taste. Clean Arabica feels kinda flat and acidic, the only single origin Arabica I love is Costa Rica. The coffee I talked in the beginning is Borbone Blu beans.

I currently have a single origin Robusta from India from my local specialty roaster and it is amazing. It has all the typical flavor profiles of a robusta but in a very mild and pleasant way. When I first opened the package and smelled it, I was pretty skeptical where this was going as it reminded me of the rubbery smell in a car salon but it really impressed me when I pulled a shot and tasted it. It makes great Cappuccini in the morning and is great to drink pure as an Espresso. It still isn’t my favorite kind of flavor but it completely changed my view on Robusta.

In Indonesia, the most popular coffee drinks maybe is the brown sugar latte. Many cofreeshops use a blend of robusta and arabica. Sometimes the result is good because the bitterness and less acidic of the robusta beans go well with the brown sugar and milk

Caffeine content varies considerably, for both robusta and arabica. Robusta often ranges up to 4%, and on average has over twice the caffeine content of arabica, and often over three times the caffeine content.

I don't really care about the taste. I am in it for the effects. Not only caffeine content, but theobromine, theophylline, and dozens of other active compounds also vary. Robusta contains much more chlorogenic acid and antioxidants, and is probably the healthier choice.

Some very interesting points about how it is worth looking at the contributions of growing conditions, processing and roasting and how these could potentially be optimised. Also, I thought the sustainability and global warming angle was interesting, and the fact that if you really like coffee, then it's worth exploring - great point. Thank you.

I am doing my own home roasting for a year now, a mini gas drum roaster.
I've found that Robusta is much easier to roast, BUT, it is quite harder to properly do medium roast of it, so most industrial scale roaster just roast them to charcoal, which resulted in bad reputation of them being too bitter. BUT (another but, lol) A LOT of people love the burnt smell of dark roast robusta, they masked up acidity and weird smells well.

I don't know how to explain it, my partner love dark roast robusta, while I don't quite like it and preferred medium, now I always make sure to have both kinds in stock.
We should embrace people's preference, there's no "best" or "good" coffee, we should talk more on "what's your favorite" instead.

If robusta was so bad why is it the second most produced coffee variant in the world after Arabica then?

Robusta tastes so much better to me, and I drink it Armenian style, black with no sugar.

To me it tastes earthy and nutty, more full flavored and smoother than Arabica. And I agree, less acidity for sure.

I think that variety is the spice of life. Since there are not many places in the United States that sell Robusta coffee, I believe that a coffee shop that roasts and brews coffee could really set themselves apart from the competition by featuring this bean. I have searched for robusta in my area and have been unable to find any. I am going to suggest this to my favorite coffee company and hopefully they will try to get some and experiment with it. If they are the only place in our region to get Robusta then people will have to go there to experience it. I have found that coffee has really changed over the years. I spend a lot of time and money searching for that long lost taste, and for unique coffee experiences that will have a memorable experience.

The funny thing is people get snobby about Arabica but actually Robusta is better quality. People have bought into that lie. In reality instant coffee is only bad because it's instant coffee. it doesn't matter what bean they use the most quality of those type of beans no matter what it is. So it doesn't matter if you have my best being in the world if it's instant it's not going to taste good. Look at all the companies that use robusta beans Deathwish devil Mountain Coffee there's a reason why people think they're higher quality because the beans are.

Coffee❤❤☕

Interesting redeemer video for Robusta. Actually i prefer Robusta over Arabica coffee. The problem Robusta has is that since it is considered second rank coffee, it often also receives second rank treatment in the processing and packaging line, contributing to its less attractive tastes and smells.

100 - lived in China and disovered Robusta growers in Asia - and to use with my Flair Pro2 - many were excellent either by theemselves or in combination (Blends) with Arabicca - especially for my teaching all afternoon days! 😋

No acidity?… well, that does it for me. I find acidity in coffe utterly disgusting since l don’t alter my coffe with artificial flavouring like sugar or milk and l actually like the type of bitterness that coffee has.

The slurping wasn´t as loud and as obnoxious as it could have been, how do I know that you reeeeaaally tasted that coffee! Video: 1/10!!!

I want to know which coffee can be made from Arabica beans...???
And which is rubasta beans coffee..??
Basically we used rubasta beans for cappuccino, latte etc milk base coffee,
Then how to use arabica bean's??

Is this the correct way of tasting/drinking coffee?

I have some robosta tree's on my farm i just harvest them and dryed and roasted the beans it tastes grate so good that i will sell in my store

The Case for Robusta

The most underrated coffee bean in the industry; I’ve been drinking it for six months now. Most experts, which I’m not, will avoid selling these types of beans.

Robusta is considered inferior to its Arabica sibling for a few reasons. One reason is It’s less refined in taste, which could be described as having a rubbery or gummy taste. In terms of appearance, it’s said that the shapes and sizes are uneven and broken. You’ll never see a robusta in a cupping competition.

I and a few other coffee lovers are pushing back against these claims for a few reasons of our own.

Facts matter!

Robusta has more caffeine than Arabica, so hurray for me. I need my morning kick. Robusta is richer in disease-fighting antioxidants than Arabica in the form of quinines, especially if the beans are LIGHT roasted!

Taste:

I humbly disagree with the critics. A freshly light roasted robusta will yield beautiful aromatics and flavor. Expect milk chocolate, Shiraz, stone fruit, long tail finishes of red wine and flower. I have also enjoyed a medium roast version as well-exotic indeed.

I’m drinking a Côte d'Ivoire, Ivory Coast Robusta and am very pleased.

If any robusta farmers are reading this, tell me maybe what it would be like to try growing robusta in Yemen. I have been asked by a friend to find seeds. This would be the first time that robusta coffee would ever be grown in Yemen! So I'm also looking for a robusta coffee nursery

Interesting, thanks.

While Robusta will be affected by climate change, it will not be affected so severely, so it will likely do fairly well in future.

I learned to drink coffee from Buon Ma Thuot in Vietnam, prepared in the specific Vietnamese way. Wonderful coffee, with a very special chocolatey taste.

I prefer robusta coffee but I’m from New Orleans.

Thank you so much for the recognition and for highlighting the greatness of Robusta. As a Robusta producer in Uganda, I'm thrilled to see it finally receiving the attention it deserves. The negative perception of Robusta stems mainly from three factors: international cartels that devalue it to keep demand lower than Arabica and drive down prices, a lack of quality control, and insufficient marketing.

However, we now have specialty Robusta that has been meticulously cultivated and truly tastes exceptional. I grow native, wild varieties of Robusta, indigenous to the Kibaale Forest National Park—the birthplace of Robusta coffee. These varieties, part of the 1,221 found in the forest, have a unique profile distinct from the new GMO coffee species bred for pest resistance and high yields, often at the cost of natural flavor. Experts who have tasted my Robusta can't easily distinguish it from Arabica, that's how good Robusta can get, if well taken care of.

I love robusta. It doesn't have that awful sweet and acidic quality of arabica. I had pretty much stopped drinking coffee because it was giving me a sour stomach and headache....and then I found robusta.

After traveling extensively throughout Italy, I am a Robusta convert, especially when used for espresso. Here in the U.S. most espresso tastes too sharp and light bodied, but when using Robusta in a blend or 100% robusta, then it has that body and sweetness that makes espresso delicious.

A lot of sellers have been out or Variety Robusta but far as I’ve tried only a couple. India cherry robusta is my favorite. I like using this alone for espresso and sometimes use with single origin arabica for a caffeine kick at 10%. Thank you for your help on here.

The problem with Robusta, is the reputation of it, and people's ignorance and unwillingness to try it. I first tried pure Robusta at age 60, and on my first taste, there was no going back to Arabica. In my first taste, I thought, "oh yeah, this IS coffee, but it's coffee that goes in a different direction". Robusta is STRAIGHT DOWN THE MIDDLE, COFFEE. No acid, no fruity side notes, no complexity to figure out, just a very, very comforting, coffee taste. With cream and sugar, you taste chocolate and/or carmel side notes. This stuff is very comforting, like meeting an older person with a simple and great charisma. And the buzz effect is different, it's not jittery, it's just HAPPY. And yes, it has a different mouth feel, it's thicker than Arabica. I live in Hawaii, and I can buy farm-fresh Kona coffee, but I DON'T. I buy pure Robusta from Vietnam, through Amazon. I've been trying to get canephora seeds here for a year, but no success.

Thats a wonderful vid, thanks! Please tell me where to get a hand press like yours for espresso.

Brazilian Robusta coffee is great.

The challenge I have with robusta is due to its caffeine content I have to treat it differently. I can’t drink a lot of it. I usually like having large cups of coffee, but with robusta I’d overdose on caffeine. I haven’t found a decaf robusta so far.

Thanks for your post. I'm an avid coffee drinker and interested in learning more about Robusta coffee.