The special traits of “Robusta Coffee” that differs from Arabica Coffee.
When talking about robusta coffee, most of you would think of the bitter taste, the dizziness, industrial grade coffee, or the ingredient of instant coffee. Robusta has a strong intense flavor and 2 times more caffeine than arabica, which therefore makes it slightly less popular for coffee drinkers. Today, Boncafe would like to re-educate you about the robusta coffee beans that actually have a special trait which arabica doesn’t have.
Get to know about Robusta Coffee and Arabica Coffee. What’s the difference?
The 2 coffee breeds that are commonly sold within the market are robusta and arabica. Both coffee breeds have different characters. For example, arabica needs to be cultivated in higher grounds with low temperature like in the northern parts of Thailand, while robusta is able to be grown at lower grounds and widely common in the south of Thailand. Also, the robusta’s productivity is more than arabica along with the amount of caffeine of robusta is 2 times more than arabica.
Despite robusta coffee being less popular in the market than arabica, it displays a unique trait that excels the arabica in several aspects.
- The robusta is resistant to harsh environments and various plant diseases. It is able to grow and produce better crops than arabica because of the ability to grow in areas ranging in height from 0-800 meters from the sea level, while also being resistant to heat and insect diseases than other coffee breeds.
- Has strong intense taste and steady quality. Robusta coffee has an intense taste and used to have negative feedback from its stinking chemical and bitterness but nowadays the robusta coffee bean flavors has been developed into positive feedback with its improved nutty, malt, caramel, cocoa, mild taste along with other fruity tone tastes as well.
- Has higher caffeine. The robusta coffee bean has around 2.7% caffeine which is more than the arabica beans that has around 1.2% caffeine. Therefore, robusta coffee is suitable for those who like strong coffee and need substance to kick in the refreshing alertness.
- It has lower production cost, thus cheaper. Robusta is easy to grow, tough, and yields more crops with steady quality, which results in the lower production cost compared to arabica coffee beans.
- It has several roasting methods from the robusta’s strong and intense taste which provide an opportunity for coffee roasters to integrate their roasting methods to create various new tastes that differ; whether from usual roasting techniques or specific techniques that draws out the fragments and unique tastes. Another special feature is that light roasted coffee usually draws the mild sour taste; arabica would have a fruity taste, but robustas will have a licorice or gooseberry flavor with a sweet aftertaste that coats the throat. If roasted mediumly, robusta will provide a sweet tone fragrant like nuts or caramel, while dark roasted will have a dark chocolate like bittersweet taste.