Why you don't find Robusta in our roastery?

There are a huge number of articles in the style of Robusta vs Arabica, but few of them capture the essence. This is because robusta is the salvation of many roasters and coffee merchants. Why is this so:

Coffea canephora a.k.a. Coffea Robusta is a varietal of coffee tree from Africa, just like Coffea Arabica. 

I will now omit the section on how coffea arabica has many varieties (gesha, bourbon, SL24, IH80,…) similar to vines (riesling, sauvignon, petit verdot,…)

It is not important for the consumer where arabica is grown and where robusta (canephora) from the point of view of altitude or the landscape.

Important information is: 

Arabica is expensive - it is prone to disease, it is good at high altitudes, where it is difficult to harvest, has low yields and needs to be harvested by hand, it can have amazing taste profiles that are exceptional in SPECIALTY GRADE Arabica.

Robusta is cheap - it grows easily, it is resistant to diseases, it has a high yield, but it tastes lousy. 

Yes, robusta tastes miserable. I hear the guy who tasted the experimental fermented lot in IFernandez from Fernandez as he says that even Robusta can be amazing. It can be amazing - 0.01% of the total world harvest can be. Unfortunately, 99.9% of robusta do not touch the heels of speciatily Arabica because it simply does not achieve the sensory (flavor) properties of top arabicas even from a distance. 

So is Robusta bad?

Not by any chance.

Robusta is great for some applications. It is very cheap. Sometimes 10 to 100 times cheaper. In extreme cases 2543 times cheaper. 

Let's take the example: Roaster has “O.K. Arabica” which has good taste properties. She mixes in 30% nice robusta. What has happened? Her bag of coffee has become cheaper by almost 30%. Coffee is OK. Roaster earns more, the consumer is satisfied because he was looking for coffee with a good price / performance ratio (taste). Everyone is satisfied.

But COFFIA is not like that. 

Coffia does not want to be O.K. Coffia looks for perfection when she looks in the mirror. She smiles at herself and says, "You're really good!"

Coffia was almost named Coffee Hunters at the beginning of her pilgrimage. Unfortunately, this name has already been taken. But it captures what Coffia is all about. We are looking for the best beans, the best coffee. Sometimes it is a frustrating and lengthy process. However, when all the wheels fit together and Coffia introduces itself to the world in a new dress in the form of new coffee, all those who took part in it feel a bit of pride. The feeling that we can give people (and often they became new friends) something new and special again. When we receive an email with an almost poem from our French fan, the roaster Michal flies 20 cm above the ground, Eva glows, Andy reads it and we all feel that our work makes sense. 

1 comment

Podľa mňa, presadiť sa s naozaj kvalitnou kávou je naozaj ťažké. Raz som sa rozprával s pražiarom istej pražiarne, prečo pražia tmavo. Odpoveďou my potvrdil, čo som si myslel. Kvôli zákazníkom. Klesol im obrat, keď pražili trochu svetlejšie. Nanešťastie BOP tu napáchali obrovské škody 😀 v tom, čo je dobrá káva. Ale našťastie je tu niekto, ako Coffia, ktorá prináša naozaj vynikajúcu kávu. Ďakujem

Kušev Stanislav January 31, 2022

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