🎧 Listen: In today's episode of The Journal podcast, JonathanEmont explains why the humble Robusta coffee bean, long the ugly duckling of the coffee world, could be on the brink of a comeback
The Underdog Coffee Bean That Java Snobs Hate Is Finally Getting Some RespectThis transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.
Jon Emont: Robusta, it was treated as inferior. Starbucks on its website says its harsher taste is often compared to burnt rubber. Robusta in the way it's traditionally been grown and produced is very, very bitter. It tastes a bit like drinking ... It tastes a bit like what I imagine fuel tastes like. It's intense. It's very intense.
Jon Emont: I am. I think almost everybody is. I'm not as snobby as some people. I wouldn't call myself a real expert or anything. But reporting this piece I spoke to a lot of real coffee geeks and I learned that I wasn't one, just through listening to them. Jon Emont: And what that ended up doing was it just created this idea that Arabica was better than Robusta, which true or not, sort of created this cycle where Arabica farmers, especially in recent years, could actually sell their coffee for more money if they actually invested in it because there was this market for specialty coffees. Whereas with Robusta, it became this sort of self-fulfilling prophecy because it was treated as inferior.
Jon Emont: So that's why this is so revolutionary is people saying, "Wait, but does it have to be like this? Does it have to taste like this?" Nishant Gurjer: I'm Nishant Gurjer, so I'm the managing partner of Kaapi Royale and Sethuraman Estate, and I'm a sixth generation coffee grower. Nishant Gurjer: I said that, "Okay, fine, we can be average Arabica producers," which we were, "or we can really up the ante and go totally different and go towards growing high-end specialty Robustas." I know it was swimming against the tide and people in '95, '96, did you know what Robusta was, forget about specialty Robusta. Robusta was not even something which people would want to talk about.
Speaker 8: Yeah. And there's something about it. It's darker and more bitter. I'm not really into it.Ryan Knutson: What did you think of it when you tried it?Ryan Knutson: You don't like coffee and you work in a coffee shop.Ryan Knutson: Eventually I found a bag of Robusta beans at a grocery store. It was made by Nguyen Coffee Supply, a coffee roaster in Brooklyn that makes high-end Robusta. The beans look almost a little bit different.
Ryan Knutson: Nguyen Coffee Supply, the company that made the beans I tried earlier is one of the companies pushing hard to change Robusta's image. The company even started a pledge with more than 150 signatures to change the narrative around Robusta.
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