ChuckViau Senior Member Joined: 2 May 2005 Posts: 140 Location: Sudbury, Ontario Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Not There Yet Grinder: Solis Maestro Plus Vac Pot: Cona "D" Drip: Chemex Roaster: I-Roast2, FreshRoast Plus 8
Posted Thu Feb 2, 2006, 3:48am Subject: Re: Robusta's Rehab, The Cafe Stage
Excellent article. I liked that it was unbiased either way. It will be interesting to see what happens, as the third wave continues to build momentum, to the role of Robusta in espresso.
yobob Senior Member Joined: 6 Nov 2003 Posts: 24 Location: Southeastern Arizona Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Starbies Digital Italia,... Grinder: Bodum Antigua Vac Pot: Bodum eSantos, French Press Drip: Melitta 1:1, thinking about...
Posted Thu Feb 2, 2006, 9:14am Subject: Re: Robusta's Rehab, The Cafe Stage
Very informative article. After I finally stopped laughing (third paragraph), I was able to appreciate both sides of the argument more fully. I personally like a little of the R-word beans in my espresso. And it doesn't taste like cat pee at all IMO.
Posted Fri Feb 3, 2006, 4:52am Subject: Re: Robusta's Rehab, The Cafe Stage
I am just beginning to understand the complexity of espresso. I judge good espresso by how bitter the finish is, the amount of crema, and by the flavors present. If the finish is highly bitter, I feel the shot is not a good shot. If the finish is smooth, then I judge it to be good. I understand espresso is a blend of different beans, and that the flavor profile, and defects, of the chosen beans are magnified when placed under the high pressure generated by an espresso machine. Now here is the question. What is the difference between Arabica beans and Robusta beans? Is it the way the beans are roasted? Are they specific types of beans that are robusta beans? Thanks for helping me with my confusion.
pstam Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 2,305 Location: Beijing Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ECM, SAN MARCO, EURO 2000 Grinder: MAZZER Vac Pot: YES Drip: YES Roaster: YES, HOME STYLE
Posted Fri Feb 3, 2006, 7:59pm Subject: Re: Robusta's Rehab, The Cafe Stage
lonewolfbefree Said:
...... Now here is the question. What is the difference between Arabica beans and Robusta beans? Is it the way the beans are roasted? Are they specific types of beans that are robusta beans? Thanks for helping me with my confusion.
Here, ARABICA and ROBUSTA beans are two different species (?) of coffee plants, as JonR10 said.
They come from different trees and berries, and they have different tastes, and many other characteristics, like mouthfeel, intension and so on. They both are used to make coffee drinks, with different typical features.
It is generally understood that ARABICA beans are better than ROBUSTA beans. It is mainly for the reason, and fact that ARABICA beans can always make better drip coffee than ROBUSTA beans. Due to the long history of drinking drip coffee within the most area and population of the world, people got such an understanding.
But, when the games moved to espresso, everything had been changed. To better understand espresso, one has to re-learn about ROBUSTA beans.
I know Caffe Molinari had a new blend for 100% arabica beans, and we just made a new order from them. As our experience and knowledge, we do not even want to try it. The best is still ORO blend, for all espresso and espresso based coffee drinks. 5 STAR blend can be good for pure espresso, and specially the people who do not like too much bitter and prefer low acidity espresso. For this reason, it is quite similar to the 100% arabica blends and not quite workable for making cappuccino and caffe latte, up to my knowledge.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
javaj Senior Member Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 165 Location: San Francisco, CA Expertise: Professional
Posted Sat Feb 4, 2006, 1:31am Subject: Re: Robusta's Rehab, The Cafe Stage
I greatly enjoyed this article. As a long time advocate of high quality washed robusta in espresso, I have long since quite evangelizing it to non-believers. For me, however, it is synonymous with great Italian espresso. It is refreshing to see in the last few years a willingness to be more open minded. I have noticed more and more 3rd Wavers embracing this trend. As my friend Pe_tah said, "it's the new old thing."
Arabica and liberica have sub varieties. Dunno what liberica's are, but some of arabica's subs are columnaris, erecta and mokka.
I've had some talks in the past with people who believe there's potential in some of the untried 11 or so species... but who knows. IIRC, one of them was George Howell, but I'm not 100% sure.
Some other coffea species names I remember off the top of my head:
Excelsa Canephora Racemosa Katapaka and many others.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 