The Rise of Specialty Robusta Coffee

Can specialty robusta be as good as arabica? Does it need to be? Are the two even comparable? With climate change impacting the amount of arabica growing in Indian coffee growing regions, many farmers are switching to robusta and innovating with specialty robusta. Arabica, has long captured the imagination of the public, but will the robusta story get its chance in the spotlight too?

When Rohan Kuriyan snuck in a robusta coffee amidst a table of arabicas unbeknownst to his Australian buyers during a blind coffee tasting, a lot of them picked the robusta over the arabicas for its flavour. Yet, he frustratedly added, “They didn’t buy a single bean of robusta.” Rohan Kuriyan is the Manager of Corporate Affairs at Balanoor Plantations and fourth generation planter, and is not alone in this experience, making robusta a sort of coffee buyer’s kryptonite. For a country that produces 72% robusta, this level of antipathy is problematic, especially when coffee’s entire future hangs in the balance in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

It is hard not to think of robusta as being the victim of a similar fate to many of us in middle school — stuck with an unfortunate nickname leading to a lifelong struggle with identity, akin to Jhumpa Lahiri’s Gogol. Robustas have been anonymous ingredients in coffee blends due to their high CO2 level and lower lipid content, which creates a thicker crema (the creamy froth that sits atop an espresso shot). Which is why, when Rahul Reddy, co-founder of Bombay based Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters decided to experiment with launching a 100% robusta offering earlier this year, he viewed it necessary to redesign their entire packaging line. This wasn’t purely for aesthetics; it was a step towards challenging consumers to not view robusta through the lens of arabica, and an effort to mitigate the “PR nightmare” robusta has faced.

Chikmagalur hills, by Raghunath Rajaram of Aramse

Coffee drinkers have likely heard of arabica and robusta, whose differences are heavily entangled with misinformation, not least of all because of an early misnomer. Surprising to most, robusta is in fact one variety of the species, C. canephora, the other being nganda. In 1900, canephora seeds made their way to Java, and upon displaying coffee rust resistance and ‘robustness’ resulted in the entire species being referred to as robusta. A name so on the nose has sold the entire species short, and is just the beginning of a long list of misapprehensions faced by it.

Robusta’s Champions

Specialty coffee, viewed as the highest quality of coffee available and with immense traceability back to the farm, is a nascent but growing market in India. Priced at an eye-watering Rs. 500-800 for just 250g, this is circa 4-6 times traditional store bought coffee. Typically associated exclusively with arabica, coffee companies globally are starting to experiment with high-quality robusta, termed as fine robusta. What may outwardly appear as semantics, has contributed to a further alienation of the species, symbolising its unworthiness of the coveted ‘specialty’ status. In a culture that is often associated with looking to the West for markers of cultural capital, Indian roasters are in fact forging their own path. Marketing specialty robusta offerings on their websites, they have been surprised by customers’ receptiveness and willingness to pay top dollar for it. In a telling anecdote of how coffee preferences are largely subjective, Marc Tormo of Pondicherry based Marc’s Coffees demonstrates how it is the responsibility of coffee professionals to be thoughtful in their communication of robusta to customers. He notes that when he first offered high-quality robustas at his cafe, there was no inherent demand for it due to its flavour preconceptions; they “had to create it” simply by showcasing it more, without judgement. In fact, robusta’s distinctiveness goes beyond coffee, with particular appeal in food applications because of its “stronger flavours and mouthfeel”, he adds. Contralily, in mature international consumer markets, customers are more set in their ways and quick to lump all robustas under the same umbrella partially driven by influencers and tastemakers’ aversion to robusta staking its place in specialty coffee.

Coffee Taster’s Flavour Wheel by the SCA

In coffee taste evaluations, all coffees are scrutinised through the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) flavour wheel, an industry standard for describing flavour notes most frequently found in coffee, and primed for arabica. This tool, with descriptors like blueberry and maple syrup that are less familiar to the Indian palate, is also meant to encompass flavours found in coffees globally, irrespective of growing origin. This has been a double whammy for champions of robusta to contend with. Pranoy Thipaiah, Managing Partner and fifth generation farmer/producer of Kerehaklu Estate highlights that savoury notes on the flavour wheel like “cereal, and [woody like] cedar are generally undesirable in arabica, but prevalent in robustas.”

Though it is early days still, powerful stories have begun to emerge from the subcontinent and those alongside good product make India well-suited to lead a canephora revolution. Norman Mazel, experienced quality analyst, Q grader & Q Robusta grader, notes that Indian robustas have “spicy flavours, but it’s more creamy, more gentle.”

Battling Biases on Robusta

At its heart, robusta has long been viewed as a cheaper, harsher substitute for arabica, forced upon the market due to arabica’s susceptibility to disease, and inability to thrive with rising temperatures. Coffee consultant Binny Varghese, says “it’s because [arabica] is difficult, people have said it’s better”, thereby creating insurmountable baggage for robusta. Robusta’s poor reputation “is the result of correctable defects in cultivation and processing rather than qualities inherent to the species.” Interestingly, its significantly higher chlorogenic acid content which contributes to its bitterness is also what contains coffee’s touted antioxidant compounds responsible for noteworthy health benefits, demonstrating how we have only scratched the surface of robusta’s uniqueness.

India’s burgeoning specialty arabica consumers have jumped headfirst into the quest for more extreme flavours — those inherent to the beans and usually enhanced by innovative processing methods. Pranoy quips that Indian consumers love our palates to be “smashed with flavours”, translating into a consumer desire for novelty in coffee flavour notes too. Similar innovative processing could provide the gateway for more nuanced robustas with mitigated bitterness, whilst satiating consumer desires for novel flavours.

When Sharan and Eshwar YK, owners and third-generation farmers/producers of Salawara Estate, embarked upon the journey to grow and process high-quality robusta, first showcased in their partnership with Subko, they noticed a distinct lack of robusta-specific agronomic practices. They tell a story most of us know to be true at the back of our minds, but are yet to reconcile with. With the market’s tentativeness towards robusta, coffee producers are reluctant to invest in the creation of added value through “selection picking and processing” Sharan laments. They have witnessed fellow planters dump arabica plants in favour of robusta due to unmanageable labour costs, and weather difficulties. Balanoor’s Rohan echoes that a lot of smallholder farmers are looking to sell their properties or rotate out of coffee entirely, as smaller lands make growing coffee more challenging and unprofitable.

Robusta vs. Arabica bean, by Aramse. Robusta beans (green and roasted) on the left, are more round, smaller, and have a straighter centre cut, versus Arabica bean on the right.

In the misty hills of Chikmagalur, coffee grows amidst jackfruit and fig trees, and the dwindling biodiversity of elephants, and the lion-tailed macaque to name a few. Our beloved drink is increasingly a privilege. In a myopic search for ‘the best’, we forget that quality is “not discovered but created.” Coffea Canephora’s story is one deserving of being shouted from the coffee-growing mountaintops.

Banner image credit: Lynn Mascarenhas, St. Margaret Estate, Chikmagalur.

Namisha Parthasarathy is the co-founder of Aramse and a freelance journalist presently based in Mysore, India.

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