As a disclaimer, let me say first that I am a slightly laissez-faire fair coffee roaster.

I have been roasting for a long time and for most of that time I have roasted for espresso. I pull mostly single origin shots and usually from an unlabeled bag. For me every shot is a new adventure and that's the way I like it. Usually, the only time I blend is when I add beans from one bag to the other or mix in the hopper pretty much just for grins.

Yes, I know it's heresy, but the variety amuses me.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never roasted Robusta.

We offer a couple of highly recommended rotating selections from Cafe Imports just to help people get started with our roasters. I get information overload picking from Sweet Marias, much less the typical 800+ possible selections from any of the big importers. We cull it down to just a couple of quality offerings and rotate them as they sell out. One of our guys asked for Robusta so I called Matt at CI and got a bag of Indian Robusta. I ended up with about 25 lbs extra so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

First, it didn't crack? It just got dark. That was weird, but after a couple of tries, I just went with it.

Then I mixed 80% FC+ El Salvador SHG with 20% Robusta and waited a couple of days. The first week or so, the shots were moderately harsh. After a solid 10-11 days, they have smoothed considerably. This mornings shots were kind of unexpectedly amazing.

The thing that really blows me away is how much better the puck is. I'm pulling shots on an old commercial VBM 2 group e61. It's always worked very well, but the Robusta is giving me much more solid pucks and better extraction. They drop out of the portafilter nearly perfectly clean. For this espresso machine, that's kind of a new thing.

I had no idea and I don't recall anyone mentioning this before. It surprised me how much of a difference is made so I'm just throwing it out there for anyone with more experience to comment on.

I'm also slightly curious about the roast. How do you roast a bean that doesn't crack? It may have popped a little around where I'd normally expect 2nd crack, but it was a solidly darker than I normally go before it made any kind of sound.

What gives?

Robusta, blah! Way back when i started my espresso journey, i had alway read about needing 20% robusta in a good blend. But I guess my tastebuds changes with age. Now I just don't care for it and lean more towards the single origin for my espresso. But back then it wasn't to popular to have coffee rest 7 days, in fact a couple days was the norm.
I don't know if we'll get to the point when you can scientifically roast a coffee and tell what the optimal rest period would be.
But i do kind agree robusta is a different animal for roasting. I had never let it rest that long so maybe thats why i didn't like it.

Only time I roasted robusta was at a large commercial company, and they used it in their espresso blend. It was from Uganda, the beans were largish, irregularly shaped, and light green. We roasted it ridiculously low and slow, can't remember the finish temp, but then it was practically "baked" by the time we dropped it. This blend got better and better from two weeks to a month after roasting. It sucked when it was fresh.

I can wholeheartedly agree with the resting time, almost gave up on my 20% robusta blends, they where so unpleasantly bitter, but for the sake of science kept tasting every day and, behold, after around 10 days they started to become more and more balanced. They kept this pleasant balanced character for up to one month, then the bag was empty. Crema was always good and flow was thicker consistently compared to my single origins, which meant I didn't need to adjust my grind to get good timing.
But more data is needed to be able to make hard statements.
I haven't given up on robusta though.

I moved a bag of this R-certified robusta from India. I shared it with a professional roaster who said it was the best robusta he had ever had. The bean is long in the tooth now (Jun '12 arrival); they aren't restocking since the bean didn't move. http://croptocup.myshopify.com/collecti ... -unroasted

I drank several cups in a press pot with steamed milk. Not bad at all but too much caffeine for my preferences. I blended it into comfort shots. The hint about roasting it ahead is helpful, thanks.

another_jim wrote:In espresso blending, I often like Robusta in mellow, caramel and chocolate blends; but never in bright and fruity ones.

Also very true! I tried Yircha and robusta 70/30. In the first days (4-10) the bright Yircha was pleasant and familiar but the harsh robusta was very misplaced together with this brightness. Then as it 'matured' the robusta settled into something smoother but the Yircha turned thin and sour! The whole thing just felt rather empty then.

But again, I still need to learn a lot. It's just my interest in robusta was tickled thanks to this thread:
2 month old Kimbo from Italy produces great espresso. I'm confused!

Of course we're talking about Italian masters at work here with decades of experience, I don't think I'll ever be able to get anyway near this kind of result. But hey, we also try to copy Jamie Oliver recipes and are proud of our brown blubber, because we made it ourselves!

If you at the SCAA Seattle show next month stop by the Josuma booth. Last year Dr. Johns had a 100% Robusta blend that was quite drinkable. I pumped out a sample and there was another gentleman next to me talking to the good Doctor and he said, "That's Robusta. You won't like it," or words to that effect, and he made a face. Glad I ignored him.

As far as I know, Italian blends are up to 50% Brazil, with some Centrals, and maybe 15 to 20% robusta. These would be the bar blends, ones like Essse and Kimbo, in the 1kg bags. I don't think illycaffe uses robusta . . . does anyone know for sure? And the Lavazza Super Crema has more robusta, obviously to achieve thicker crema. The big companies can lock down huge lots of very high quality Brazils, and the best quality robustas, so it might be a combination of buying power and ages of experience in roasting and blending. Don't think any of us are going to match those parameters any time soon. . . .

Randy G. wrote:If you at the SCAA Seattle show next month stop by the Josuma booth...

And be prepared to wait in a long, long line. I opted for the Brazilian booth and the six tall women who were distributing samples.