What’s the difference between Arabica and Robusta?
This is one of the most asked questions.
Does science really relate to a corresponding picture in real-life preference?
Let’s find out.
Which is healthier
Robusta though cheaper is actually the healthier choice. Robusta are hardy plants with high caffeine and do not require excessive or any pesticide to keep itself defended.
The amount of beneficial oil, the anti-oxidant is also more in Robusta.
Which is higher quality?
In term of aromatic profile, Arabica will have more pleasant aromatics notes.
They are priced a lot higher as high grade Arabica could only grow on high altitude, requiring a lot of water.
Robusta are a lot cheaper due to how easy they could grow by themselves. However they do have more health benefits.
To say which is higher quality, is an overgeneralization as they are different species and may work best as a blend of both to bring out complexity in taste, depth in the notes and enjoy the health benefits Robusta could produce.
Also do note that both Arabica and Robusta have grades. The impact of these grades is often more pronounced in Arabica beans due to their broader range of flavors and growing conditions. Arabica’s quality and flavor are more sensitive to the altitude, climate, and soil conditions, making its grading more influential on the final product compared to Robusta.
Why do people generalize that Robusta is of lower quality
It’s true that Robusta has a lot more astringent and could taste very bitter drinking purely by itself. They will fare a lot better mixing with some Arabica to give it some pleasant notes.
Another likely reason is due to the low price, people may assume that being cheaper means lower quality.
Are there high quality Robusta?
Yes, of course. Robusta do have grades and some Robusta are processed in the same way as Arabicas.
In fact, high quality Robusta taste almost the same as medium quality Arabica.
Good Robusta can be found in countries like India, and some African nations, such as Togo.
Though most of the Robusta in the world are from Vietnam.
What else is exceptionally better in Robusta?
Robusta generally has a lot more oil and could produce coffee with very heavy body and crema.
Due to the higher content of oil, which traps CO2, Robusta are much easier to extract.
Robusta beans are also more shelf-stable under proper storage conditions and can be kept for a longer time.
What is very important about chosing the coffee?
It’s also very important to check the roast as it has an heavy influence on the taste in term of bitterness and acidity. The thickness or body of the coffee.
In general, the darker the roast, the more bitter, more body and less acidic it gets.
However, if it’s overly roasted till it’s too dark and oil gets expelled to the surface and vaporize, then it will reduce the amount of oil retained instead.
What do the coffee statistics show on preference on coffee roast?
Here are some numbers derived from the sale of coffee beans sorted by roast from our website.
In total, there are a total of 23 blends of coffee with different roast profile
Dark roast contributes 34.78% of the number of blends.
Medium roast contributes 30.43% of the number of blends.
Light roast contributes 34.78% of the number of blends.
Dark roast, despite constituting only 34.78% of the number of blends, accounts for up to 59.87% of sales.
Why is coffee sour?
Coffee tastes sourer when they are lighter roast. The purpose of such roasting is to preserve the flavours of the cherry that once enveloped the coffee beans.
You get to enjoy exotic flavours like the fruitiness and flowery notes that the fruit had.
Why do many specialty cafes produce sour coffee?
Many specialty cafes prefer to have a lighter roast which has a unique character or taste profile in the coffee.
Often, they are indeed using highly graded coffee. However, it should not be generalized that sour coffee represents better coffee as it’s entirely up to individual preference.
What has history shown us regarding the preference of coffee?
Since coffee was found in Ethiopia, most civilizations drink their coffee in a darker roast. This anecdote should be sufficient to assume that most population in the darker roast.
Lighter roast is a newer trend the emerged in recent decades that started in the Nordic region. However it’s worth knowing that they usually drink as filtered coffee and in some regions coffee were used simply to mask the odor of their drinking water in the past.
Why is coffee bitter?
The darker the roast, the more bitter it gets. As the roast gets darker, more carbon dioxide will be released and more oil produced from the bean. The carbon dioxide gets trapped in the oil, and this concoction produces a thicker coffee and more crema.
Most parts of the world are more used to darker roast coffee than lighter roast.
Is a darker roast or lighter roast coffee more healthy?
Lighter roast coffee contains more antioxidants and slightly more caffeine. They contain more polyphenol phytonutrients known as chlorogenic acids, giving all the benefits we know of from coffee.
It is worth noting that Robusta, though often deemed as more unhealthy, actually has more chlorogenic acid, which promotes the antioxidant properties in coffee.
What type of roast brings out the most aroma
A medium roast will produce the best yield for such essential oil.
Is a darker roast or lighter roast coffee more flavourful?
If we look scientifically, medium roast has the most aroma as in the diversity of the type of volatile oil that is retained in the coffee.
These tests could be done when researchers dry the espresso and measure the amount of volatile compound retained in what’s left.
Coffee that are roasted even lightler could taste more of the cherry notes that once enveloped the coffee beans. So they could have a more distinctive characters
However, with that said, most consumers judge coffee by the intensity and thickness of the coffee. As such dark roast could also be presented as more flavourful by many.
What explains the phenomenon of more consumers preferring dark roast?
We can’t tell you for sure, but there could be three main reasons.
Price
The cost of the dark roast is generally cheaper. Since delicate profiles like the floral and fruity notes are easily disintegrated at a darker roast, more affordable Arabica beans could be chosen. Use of Robusta beans which are generally cheaper, could also be used. Robustas are cheaper because they’re very resilient and require much less care to grow. They are often grown under the sun without shades.
Culture
The coffee rust disease in the last century has almost wiped out most Arabica beans, particularly in Asia. The familiar cup of coffee you had for generations mainly consisted of Robusta beans. Robusta beans are hardy plants that could stand up against disease. Robusta and dark roasts do have a higher probability of producing more astringents, but the astringents are something familiar and expected by most drinkers.
Preference
Although Arabica beans do have more favourable aromatic profiles. These profiles could have specific characteristics that may not appeal well to all drinkers. To preserve these aromatic profiles, the coffee has to be roasted lighter, allowing the drinker to taste the cherry that once enveloped the coffee beans. The result is the coffee tends to be more acidic and the lighter roast has a much weaker body. Robusta beans produce coffee with a thicker body, and have a higher caffeine content to give the jolt of life expected from the drink.
Do cheaper robusta beans have more negative consequences on my health? Do they contain more chemicals?
On the contrary, robusta beans require less or no pesticide, herbicide or chemicals to grow well due to their resilient nature. The high caffeine in it keeps most insects away. As mentioned earlier, they could be grown openly in the sun under natural conditions. They are very sustainable and require a lot lesser water to grow.
Besides that, Robusta has higher chlorogenic acid and antioxidants for other health benefits, including improving blood pressure and metabolism.
Robusta has a higher amount of caffeine, but the coffee beans are very oily and require much less quantity to produce a cup of coffee. A traditional Italian espresso contains approximately 7g of coffee with a robusta mix. Italian coffees are typically roasted darker, which slightly reduces the amount of caffeine. A modern barista using a light or medium roast pure Arabica blend, may use up to 22g to make each coffee which proportionally increases the caffeine intake. As such, it’s unreliable to tell whether your caffeine intake is higher or lower by just looking at the type of coffee used.
Summary
Although there have been various campaigns introducing speciality coffee to the public in the past two decades.
The coffee statistics we have today are not far from the ones we saw a decade ago. It seems that most consumers still prefer the old fashion classics that give a punch to refresh their day. We do see that the sales for lighter roast coffee is increasing but that could be due to the requirement for more coffee that is usually used when using such coffee.
If you are in a fix, thinking of what to get for a group of coffee drinkers, we suggest starting with a darker roast. This should pacify most of the crowd.
And whether you are looking for a dark roast with robusta or a light roast pure Arabica. Be sure to check out what we have from https://www.finecoffeecompany.com
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