Today we will talk about the main types of coffee trees - "Comparison of Arabica and robusta and their differences."
The homeland of Arabica origin is Ethiopia, if we talk about robusta, then this is the Congo, but at the same time the main production is in other countries.
Arabica is Brazil, the largest exporter of coffee in the world, and robusta has India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the same Brazil.
Arabica is a long-standing result of the crossing of Robusta Canefora and Eugenioides, a tree that is now almost nowhere to be found. Its main problem is that it has a very low yield and a very high susceptibility to various diseases, that is, extremely low immunity.
Robusta Canefora is the scientific name of the robusta tree. The main consumption of Arabica and robusta is now divided into 70% Arabica and 30% robusta.
The main use of robusta is the production of instant coffee, also for blends. Arabica is used in coffee shops. In general, horeca and retail, i.e. all catering, and you can buy something for the house - most often now there is Arabica.
To better understand the nature of taste formation in Arabica and robusta, you need to understand the composition of Arabica and robusta well.
The main thing that interests us is caffeine. In Arabica, it is 0.6-1.7%, in robusta 1.8-3.5%, that is, almost twice, sometimes three times more caffeine in robusta. Robusta also contains fewer sugars, fewer lipids and more chlorogenic acids. Chlorogenic acids, in turn, are responsible for the additional bitterness in the taste.
What is the difference between Arabica and robusta?
Let's learn more about caffeine. Caffeine is an immunity for the plants and berries themselves: the more caffeine there is in the leaves or in the fruits, the more resistant the plant is to various diseases. The main disease that damages coffee trees, and in general can cause the total extinction of trees in an entire country, is swarm rust. This is a bacterium that is transported by wind from tree to tree and thus hectares, tens of hectares, can die in one year. Robusta with a high caffeine content in fruits is less susceptible to these diseases, Arabica is extremely whimsical. The higher we climb into the mountains, the more rarefied the air is, the temperature is lower, and the soil is richer in minerals. In these rather harsh conditions (from 15 to 20 degrees the average temperature day and night, it does not fall, but it does not rise much) Arabica feels safe, because there are few bacteria there. That's where it grows. The height of Arabica grows from 800 to 2000 meters above sea level; the lower we descend from the mountains, the poorer the soil, the higher the temperature, sudden temperature fluctuations day and night and more different bacteria, the higher the humidity. Under these conditions, bacteria multiply and Arabica does not survive there, and robusta with a high caffeine content feels good there. Therefore, the height of robusta growth is from 0 to 800 meters above sea level, such low mountains: Vietnam, India and Brazil. These are the main countries where robusta is grown, and all the highlands that we can find on the equator, all the mountains are Arabica.
Now there are quite serious environmental problems, global warming. Regions where trees felt safe about 30 years ago, now Arabica does not grow there and farmers have to climb higher and higher into the mountains to grow Arabica or carry out breeding. Many institutes are working on the fact that they are engaged in crossbreeding: they take the root system from robusta with good, powerful immunity and take the upper part from Arabica. From here, a fairly large number of hybrids have appeared, which are officially considered and called Arabica, but at the same time they are already crossed subspecies of Arabica and robusta. The most famous varieties of a mixture of Arabica and robusta are Timor and Katimor, which are often grown in South America, for example. Now institutions such as the Coffee Quality Institute are actively working to study robusta in more detail, its properties and improve its quality.
In fact, almost no one has been engaged in robusta, for the last 20 years the coffee industry has been actively engaged in the research, study and improvement of the quality of Arabica. But robusta has a lot of potential. If Arabica has such a category as specialty coffee, specialty Arabica, then robusta is distinguished by Fine Robusta and many are working on it now. Just as Arabica has a Quality Arabica Grader, which are responsible for the quality of coffee, selection, selection, robusta has a Quality Robusta Grader, which also taste robusta and evaluate it. Due to the fact that robusta has a higher yield, it is less whimsical, in the near future it will have a fairly serious reason to compete with Arabica.
If we are talking about pricing, robusta is, of course, much cheaper, this is its main advantage at the moment. On average, the price of robusta on the stock exchange is 1.5-2 dollars per kilogram of green coffee, for Arabica it is 2.5-4.5 dollars on the stock exchange. That is why many manufacturers use robusta in a mixture, not only because it is an established classic, Italian or European taste of coffee, but also because it is cheaper. The more we add robusta to the mixture, the more stable the taste becomes, that is, you can't change it in any way, you won't spoil it, but you won't improve it either: it is what it is, and, plus, it becomes much cheaper. Stability is not only in the fact that I, as a barista, will not be able to influence this taste, but also in the time interval: Arabica and robusta mixtures do not change for 6, 8, 10 months. The producer may be somewhere very far away and when he exports coffee to other countries, for example, through ports and some warehouses with different temperatures, this coffee, of course, will practically not change or change slowly throughout this time. If we are talking about 100% Arabica, then coffee will be very variable here and such approaches in logistics and storage conditions will no longer be suitable for Arabica. Coffee is extremely whimsical, it needs to be used here and now, in very short time intervals, up to a month.
How to visually identify Arabica and robusta?
It will not always be possible to do this, because there are hybrids of Arabica and robusta, which are officially called Arabica, but at the same time they can visually be very similar to robusta. There are taste differences: Robusta tastes woody, earthy. The tree may also be present in Arabica, if, for example, it is an old arabica, that is, if it is a green grain that has been lying in some warehouses for 2-3 years and only then it began to be fried. Old Arabica can taste like wood. Visually, robusta, firstly, is smaller in size, on average it is all smaller in size, secondly, robusta is more round, it looks like a tablet, or it is teardrop–shaped, when one part of it is pointed, and it is not flat, but more rounded and, plus, it has the longitudinal groove is very smooth, very straight.
As for the processing methods, historically the dry method was the cheapest, because it requires some kind of flat surface: beds, a concrete platform, earth and sun. There is a lot of sun on the equator, so it is a fairly cheap, free resource that they have. Arabica is used both washed and dry processing, and all sorts of hybrid, alternative methods of processing berries. Robusta is most often treated with a dry method, or, in rare cases, washed treatment is used, but this is more of an exception and even more so, so far I have not seen cases where any anaerobic, aerobic, that is, experimental methods have been used. Perhaps in the future, when the Fine Robusta industry is developed, such processing methods will also be used to improve the quality, sweetness and stability of the crop.
Visually, the creams are about the same color: robusta cream is slightly darker, it is looser, Arabica cream is slightly more elastic. If you look at the level, robusta has a higher cream level. Over time, it can be seen that Arabica cream becomes even less, robusta cream is more stable, and will stay on the surface here for a long time. After stirring the robusta cream, it still remains on the surface, it does not go away, Arabica cream is less elastic, but it still has it too.
Robusta tastes no worse, it's just different: it has more bitterness, much more bitterness and it has a very low acidity content, almost zero, low sweetness level.
Hence the descriptors that I isolate in robusta: walnut, dried fruits, bitter chocolate, wood, a little earth, smoke, dry prunes. In any case, the taste of Arabica will always have more acidity, a completely different bouquet, a completely different orientation. It's a matter of taste here.
Let's summarize the results.
Robusta should not be compared with Arabica in terms of taste profiles, these are different varieties, they have different tasks. There are a huge number of different cultures in different countries, different ideas, even age categories of people who love either one thing or something else. On our channel, we always try to explain the nature of the formation of one or another taste and perspective, where each product is heading and what we can expect in the next decade. In general, the history of hybrids and the ways of development of coffee trees is very interesting and exciting due to changes in environmental conditions, so we will keep an eye on what is happening now.
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