Introduction to coffee beans: learn more about Robusta coffee beans and the essence of tenacity

Robusta, one of the most important coffee tree varieties in the world.

Robusta species (scientific name Coffee Robusta Linden). The leaf rust-resistant varieties found in Congo in Africa have stronger disease resistance than Arabica. In the general coffee market, many people like to compare robusta and Arabica coffee beans, which is incorrect. In fact, the Robusta species was originally a mutant of the Congo species (scientific name: Coffee Canephora), and it should be compared with the Alabica species. Today, however, the Robusta species is commonly used by ordinary people, and it is not known that it is actually a variant of the Congolese species.

Arabica coffee beans grow at colder high elevations in the tropics, and those high temperatures and low elevations that are not suitable for Arabica are the land of Robusta. Robstado grows in the lowlands at 200-600m above sea level and likes warm climates. the temperature is 24-29 ℃, and the requirement for rainfall is not high. However, the variety depends on insects or wind to pollinate, so it takes 11 months from pollination to fruit, which is longer than the Arabica species.

Robusta kind of Ken has a unique aroma (known as "Rob flavor", some people mainly moldy smell) and bitter taste. If 23% of the coffee is mixed with other coffee, the whole cup of coffee will become Rob flavor (therefore, Robusta coffee beans can not be drunk as individual coffee beans). Its flavor is so bright and strong, but if you want to taste it directly, you have to be prepared. In general, robusta coffee is used in instant coffee (which extracts about twice as much liquid as Arabica), canned coffee, liquid coffee and other industrial coffees. Its caffeine content is much higher than that of Arabica, about 3.2%.

The coffee tree planted by Robusta is a kind of tree between shrubs and tall trees. Its leaves are long and bright green. The tree can be up to 10 meters high, but its roots are very shallow. The fruit is slightly rounder and smaller than Arabica coffee. The bean body is flat and round. The middle pit is straight.

The output of Robusta species accounts for 25% of coffee bean production, which accounts for 25% of coffee bean production. Its main producing country is Indonesia (one of its coffee beans is a kind of coffee bean processed by washing method, which is a hybrid between Robusta and Arabica. It is the only coffee bean on the Chinese market that can be used as a single drink), Vietnam, Africa, (Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Angola as the center of the West African countries), Vietnam has been more committed to coffee production in recent years, and included it in the national policy (Vietnam also produces a small number of Arabica coffee beans).

Robusta that you don't know.

People always habitually look at things in dichotomy, good and bad, good and evil, good and bad. The same is true in the world of coffee. "arabica" coffee beans are always classified as "good", while its distant relative "Robusta" coffee beans are often classified as "bad". We may describe it this way: if Arabica is a gift from angels, Robusta is like the booger of the devil, always despised and spurned by coffee gluttons.

Why is Robusta so notorious? Robusta beans, which are round in appearance and look like soybeans at first glance, are also known as thick and strong beans. They have strong resistance to diseases and insect pests, large output and low price. The boutique coffee industry used to have a very poor impression of Robusta because it usually does not have a charming and meticulous flavor. The bigger problem is that because the setting is a low-cost product, most of the planting methods are very rough, resulting in a bad smell. It often smells like dirt, dirt, and sometimes even a smell like charred tires and burning plastic. Ten years ago, I had a chance to taste several cheap Vietnamese robusta beans, some of which were unforgettable because they were like charred wheat tea flavored with tires, and I couldn't help spitting them out with the other nine bad flavors. I don't want another sip.

Wow! If Robusta beans are so bad, why talk about it? That's a good question! As mentioned at the beginning of this article, everything has its advantages and disadvantages. Good beans take you to heaven, rotten beans let you hang your heart! This is true of Arabica, and Robusta is no exception! In fact, under the tide of boutique coffee in recent years, exquisite robusta beans with high standard treatment have appeared in the world! The representative of boutique India Kappi Royale beans is India's Robusta (Robusta "Kappi Royale" Robusta).

Kappi Royale means "top grade". At present, there are at least four (and growing) private coffee farms in India to grow and produce high-quality "Coffee Royal" and "Kappi Royale" Robusta coffee beans with refined Arabica standards and procedures! It includes exquisite full water washing treatment and Pulp Natural mucosal drying semi-washing treatment which is popular in recent years. The advent of the "Coffee Royal" grade exquisite Robusta beans has undoubtedly begun to change the world's impression of Robusta! Most people who have drunk it will be surprised by its thick and clean characteristics. Because of the exquisite planting and handling procedures, the flavor of the Royal Coffee Robusta is mostly quite clean, without the intrusive flavor of the cheap Robusta (off-flavors). The Robusta is born without the elegant aroma of Arabica beans, replaced by a thicker, calmer taste, as well as strong walnut, peanut, hazelnut and wheat flavors like peanut butter and hazelnut.

India's "Coffee Royal" grade Robusta currently produces very little, but it has begun to attract the attention of the elite of the boutique coffee industry all over the world. Italian coffee expert David Schumann C. Schomer's famous Seattle-based Espresso Vivace began adding 14% of India's "Royal Coffee" Robusta to its Italian formula beans as early as a decade ago. Paradise Roasters, the national coffee evaluation points champion roaster, took the lead in the North American boutique coffee market, launching 100% Indian CxR espresso in 2009, and received a Coffee Review rating of 90 and 91 points in 2009 and 2010! It proves that Robusta is not what it used to be!

Incidentally, the price of Robusta is not cheap, even more expensive than many Elaraby beans! So, from now on, please stop saying: Robbosa beans are rotten beans-after all, times have changed! With the emergence and gradual attention of high-quality Robusta, it is bound to cause some chain reactions and changes to the boutique coffee culture (to be continued).

Note: David C.Schomer cancelled the addition of Robusta beans to 100% arabica formula in the second quarter of 2009.

If you want to ask the country or region that loves Robusta beans most, the first place is Italy, the hometown of espresso! If you narrow it down, to be more precise, the largest use of robusta beans is in southern Italy, such as Palermo, Naples and Sicilia. In fact, in southern Italy, most of the coffee people drink contains a considerable proportion of robusta beans. The content of 30% to 60 is commonplace, and the Robusta content of some formula beans is as high as 80% or even 100%!

Open the table of beans supplied by local wholesalers of raw coffee beans in Italy, and you will see a list of more than a dozen, or even as many as two dozen, raw beans from all over the world, for local coffee roasters to choose from. This phenomenon does not exist in other parts of the world, such as the United States and Canada, Northern Europe, Japan and even Taiwan.

You may wonder why the Italians mix a lot of robusta in Arabica beans. Generally speaking, Italian people blend into Robusta in order to increase the Crema content of Espresso.

This is only half true, and there is another little-known reason.

It turned out that southern Italy used to be a relatively poor region, where people could only afford cheap coffee, so at first it was mixed with Robusta beans simply to reduce costs. However, after years of massive baking and blending of Robusta, coupled with Italy's natural sensitivity to cooking, they found that Robusta beans have many qualities that Arabica beans do not have. as long as you are familiar with and fully master these qualities, a good cook (coffee roaster) will be able to serve magical dishes (Italian coffee beans). Compared with 44 pairs of chromosomes in Arabica beans, Robbosa beans have only 22 pairs of chromosomes, with caffeine contents of 1.5% and 2.8%, respectively. The two are completely different varieties and cannot be mixed, which explains why there are many complete differences between the two.

I like to say that Arabica beans are like earthlings, which are easy to see and familiar to us. Rob Tadou is like an alien, although it has the appearance of being close to the people on earth, but it is actually completely different on the inside. Earthlings and aliens have their own advantages and disadvantages, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Although they are different races and cannot marry to have children, through exquisite arrangements, putting them together cleverly to make up for their weaknesses and full cooperation, they will be able to contribute their respective strengths and excite an amazing spark!

I was born to be useful. Robusta and Arabica are both gifts from angels, the difference is only in the use of people.

Robusta adventure test

Business is closely related to real life. As long as you take the time to get in touch, your empathy can be inspired. Empathy can provide decision makers with the necessary situational resources to help them see the hidden dangers behind decisions; to make abstract data realistic and direct; and to provide you with practical experience in testing the accuracy of "maps".

People always think that tasting delicious coffee is a recent new phenomenon in the United States, but it is far from the case. In the 1950s, you could taste a good cup of coffee for only 5 cents. The United States is a nation addicted to coffee. However, at a time when the demand for coffee is booming, there is a big problem with its supply. At the end of June 1953, a frost swept through, destroying the entire coffee growing area in Brazil and driving up the price of coffee as a whole. After the well-known "fourth of July frost", the price of a cup of coffee soared to 10 cents, while some of the big US coffee roasters, such as Maxwell House, Folgers and Hills Bros Brothers, were even more expensive. For a while, coffee was in short supply.

It is impossible for coffee enthusiasts to break the habit of drinking coffee every day. The rise in the price of coffee angered Americans. Consumers are constantly protesting in cafes and writing letters angrily to the heads of coffee companies. The government and the media accused the Latin American government of artificially restricting coffee exports in an attempt to destroy the US market. The coffee supply problem faced by American coffee companies has turned into a public relations crisis. Coffee companies realize that prices must be slashed, or they may face the fact that coffee is out of favor in the United States. In despair, they made an incredible decision to bring in Robusta.

There are many varieties of coffee beans, the most representative of which are two kinds of Arabica and Robusta. Arabica has a slightly bitter taste and a smooth taste. Order a cup to taste slowly, full of nut aroma changeable and rich, people are infatuated. But American coffee companies have found that Arabica coffee trees are expensive to grow and vulnerable to climate and insect pests. One year it was a bumper harvest, but the next year you may lose all your money. Since the frost in 1953, coffee companies have mostly realized that Arabica is too fragile to be the first choice in the long run. They need to find a more reliable coffee bean. Robusta coffee beans are cheap, less affected by climate and many other factors, and the yield is high, but the taste of the coffee made with it is unflattering. For decades, some large coffee manufacturers in the United States have refused to use Robusta beans as raw materials to make coffee. Now that Arabica is in dwindling supply, Maxwell executives are starting to rethink corporate strategy. They figured it might be possible to mix some robusta into the ingredients without damaging the taste of Maxwell coffee. If successful, this mixed coffee will be much cheaper than pure Arabica coffee.

It is important to keep the amount of robusta in mixed coffee as low as possible so that people do not notice this unpopular additive. To ensure that this cost-cutting approach does not drive away customers, Maxwell conducted a sensory experiment. Participants were asked to taste traditional Maxwell coffee and blended coffee together and then make a comparison. As a result, few people can tell the difference between the two. The company decided to adopt this new hybrid system. By adding Robusta to its coffee, Maxwell was able to lower its sales price when competitors had to raise prices. The company's Robusta adventure experiment was soon a great success. Most consumers did not notice the change in the taste of coffee, while the addition of Robusta also reduced the price of coffee. Soon after, other coffee companies followed suit. No one complains about it.

Although Maxwell kept the short-term interests of the company, it did not solve the long-term problems that plagued the coffee industry. The demand for coffee will continue to increase, while the supply of Arabica coffee beans will still be insufficient. The following year, the pressure on the profit margin forced Maxwell executives to reconsider changing the mix of products. In Maxwell's first trial, consumers were unaware of the addition of Robusta to the blended coffee. If the content of this ingredient is slightly increased, will the customer find it? There is only one way to know the answer. The company conducted a second sensory test. Thankfully, the results of this experiment are still satisfactory. After slightly increasing the content of Robusta, the subjects still did not taste any difference in the taste of the coffee.

Maxwell has been using this scheme for years, but the demand for coffee is growing, and so is the pressure on the company to make a profit. Year after year, Maxwell, Forrest and the Hills brothers are increasing the amount of robusta in their coffee without consumers noticing it. These coffee manufacturers do experiments with consumers every year to ensure that the "upgraded formula" meets the tastes of the masses. In fact, they did. In the short term, this fact-based approach does guarantee the company's profits, and consumers do not immediately notice the change. It is right for these companies to test their products before launching their products, ensuring performance and profits. But there is a crisis behind the experimental data.

In 1964, coffee sales declined for the first time in American history. At first, companies didn't know what was going on. The test results show that people who drink coffee for a long time are satisfied with their products. However, this does not tell the whole story. The coffee drinkers are not getting younger. All healthy companies need to attract younger consumers to replace the older generation. However, in the coffee industry, this kind of upgrading has not occurred. Robusta, which increases slightly every year in blended coffee, accounts for a large proportion of this ingredient in the latest generation of products. If you don't drink coffee for many years, you will find it difficult to swallow this product with high Robusta content. If you've never had coffee before, such a cup of coffee can make you feel miserable and affect your mood throughout the day. Young people especially can't understand why their parents are so infatuated with this bad coffee. With the continuous encroachment of Coca-Cola and Pepsi on the beverage market, coffee sales are declining. The coffee industry has gradually become a low-growth, low-income industry. Since key consumers have always relied on their products, coffee company executives speculate that young people are only attracted by the fancy packaging and advertising of beverage companies. In view of this, the big coffee companies began to expand aggressively into these emerging markets, but their efforts did not work.

It is important to point out here that coffee companies rely on good "maps" to make decisions. Marketers keep a close eye on the latest consumer trends, but multiple surveys show that people are increasingly reluctant to spend money on coffee. At the same time, multiple trials have shown that coffee drinkers cannot distinguish existing blended coffee from coffee with more robusta. These tests ignore the obvious fact that coffee tastes bad after each change in composition. Nor does it mean that consumers will be more willing to pay more for better coffee if coffee companies allow it. This further shows that the map is not a territory.

For decades, coffee companies focused on reducing costs and increasing Robusta content until the presence of one person changed the rules of the game. It turns out that the demand for high-quality Arabica coffee has never declined. In the small cafes that are widely distributed in downtown and university towns, people still crave a good cup of coffee. The coffee industry remained in the same state until a man named Howard? Young entrepreneurs from Howard Schultz visited Italy in the early 1980s and discovered the business model of coffee bars there before seeing the dawn of the coffee industry. If merchants clearly classify the quality of coffee, people are willing to spend more money on good coffee. When he returned to the United States, Schultz affirmed one thing: the "map" was wrong. At Starbucks, his new coffee chain, Schultz focused on selling freshly made high-quality coffee. He brought a whole new experience to his customers. Gradually, his success promoted the coffee industry in the United States and made it a great leap forward. Since the 1990s, most coffee companies have resumed selling pure Arabica coffee. A new generation of coffee enthusiasts have emerged, who love coffee as much as their parents did.

The experience of American coffee companies highlights the challenges that every large company faces when dealing with simplified information. The entire coffee industry is betting its future on abstract data from a consumer test. Because the test results are satisfactory, the method of adding Robusta to high-quality blended coffee is unquestionable. Companies have always focused on existing coffee enthusiasts, unwittingly leading themselves into a desperate situation. Every person in charge of the company involved knew that their product tasted terrible, but because the test results showed that the public was not aware of the change, they became unscrupulous, and the taste of the coffee became worse and worse. Due to the lack of real empathy, the executives of the coffee industry lost touch with their customers and fell into the trap of an "attractive map".

Policy makers in a variety of industries often find that they are using simplified information and are seriously out of touch with reality. They always handle affairs according to some abstract concepts and have no first-hand experience at all. In many cases, the lack of contact with customers forces them to believe in worthless authority. Using intuition to connect with others can help you overcome these challenges. Establishing empathy with customers can make abstract information more informed and real-time, because it is already connected to the real people you are familiar with. Empathy enables you to jump out of the map and get more practical and specific information. Over time, this connection with others will give you a first-hand experience of the real situation, which is a necessary condition for enterprises to find new development opportunities. Sometimes empathy can even help a company avoid bankruptcy crisis.

Source: network