how to conquer robusta!

[lora]

does anyone out there in coffee land have any super ace tips on how to best use robusta beans in a cafe situation?

[Koffee_Kosmo]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

does anyone out there in coffee land have any super ace tips on how to best use robusta beans in a cafe situation?
 

In a blend

KK

[lora]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

haha. i dont have a choice unfortunately. im just the barista, not the decision maker.

[WSullivan]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

go on......whos ya employer? :

[Koffee_Kosmo]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

I have a little amount of green beans - Indian Monsooned Robusta

Its not that bad after a long rest
Its also very easy to roast

KK

[GregWormald]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

If you have only robusta beans with which to make the coffee, Id have another job waiting for when the café goes bust. 8-)

Greg

[beanflying]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

Assuming you are talking about a Blend with Robusta added and not Robusta by itself? Like any blend there are good and bad ones. My preference was to get a blend without Robusta but I have tried a few commercial ones with that were OK.

Best thing to do is get the grind and dose sorted first then maybe consider playing with the Pressurestat (depending on the machine) and see if it works better at slightly higher or lower temps.

If it still tastes like sweaty socks then time for a new blend or a new employer

[Luke_G]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

On a few snobs nights we have had up here there have been times when we have had a strictly robusta night.

I have tried a few robustas including..

Indian Ottuman Est washed
Indian cherry AB
Indian monsoon Robusta
Ugandan dry processed
Indonesian (very larger beans)
Vietnamese (cheap crap)

I have listed them in order of most palatable to lease.
All 3 Indian robustas were drinkable as a stand alone coffee. The Ugandan was not so drinkable more akin to burnt tyres rolled in mud.

The Asian robustas were.....not so nice
In fact...they were absolutely erky! lol

All coffees were brewed as espresso, pour over and Turkish.

We found the Indian types preferred a lighter roast than the others. The Ugandan was better as a very lightly roasted turkish coffee but the Asians were mostly undrinkable unless blended with one of the Indains.

[Fresh_Coffee]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

Not enough information in the question to reply properly.

A.

[lora]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

sorry for the late response!

thanks for all the replies....

its a robusta blend, as far as i know. i have no other infomation other than its brazillian. thats all. lame i know, but theyre lovely employers who know zilch about coffee. ive suggested a few places to get coffee from. but well see.

but id also like to know how to use robusta blends as best i can. just incase, by random chance, i have to use them again.

any suggestions for beans that would go well with cupcakes?

thanks again!

[Thundergod]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

any suggestions for beans that would go well with cupcakes

Again, how longs a piece of string?

It depends on many things including how the beans have been roasted.

Add cupcakes and it then depends on what the cupcakes are made from and what they are iced with etc etc etc.

[beanflying]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

any suggestions for beans that would go well with cupcakes?

Anything without Robusta in the blend as you wont be tasting cup cakes

For a good quality easily available and very consistant blend you could do a lot worse than Genovese and their Super Brazil, which I chose and thought it would suit my customers. Also there is several other sponsors here that roast commercially as well including Beanbay, Cuppacoffee, Di Bella and Veneziano plus a quite a few more.

The main thing in getting a blend as far as I am concerned is not what I like but what "most" of my customers will like and what suits the equipment I have. Personal preference is of a much lower concern.

[Fresh_Coffee]

Re: how to conquer robusta!

As an experienced coffee roaster, business person and realist I havent seen much above that really goes to the heart of the question.

If the blend your cafe is using happens to have some robusta in it and it tastes just fine when brewed properly, then you do no more than you would do with any other blend of coffees....brew it properly and serve  

You can serve it with anything, just like any blend of coffee made properly.

Who cares if there is some robusta in it, if it tastes fine. Why would there be any need to draw attention to it, if it tastes fine in the context of the blend that it forms a part of.

Do you know, that good quality robustas, are far better than low quality arabicas? So what is the point of the marketing machines that crank out slogans like "we only use 100% arabica".....they are just that....slogans and marketing, just like the marketing that has clients asking if your coffee machines have a 16 bar pump......irrelevant, and trying to get your business dollars.

So if your coffee tastes fine, leave it alone. And if it doesnt, make sure the adjustment of your grinder and your technique, are doing the right thing by the beans, before you go chasing the beans themselves. Remember, the beans are only one part of the equation and any complaints about the brew are just that...complaints about the brew. Those complaints belong to the cafe not the bean supplier, until all possible causes have been exhausted and it is proven that the beans themselves really are to blame.....

By far the most annoying, disruptive, emotive problems that occur with clients, are when staff try and influence / interfere with the decisions their employers make. If an employer has a relationship with a supplier and all is going well, why interfere? Who says your employers dont know zilch about coffee?  If they were convinced to change supplier or change blend, would it make any difference to the big picture, which happens to be the operation and success of their business in toto?

Cleints and suppliers need to work together not against eachother, and that is not helped if there is interference from the floor.

There is no end of sleazy coffee company reps and base grade bar wristers that tell cafe owners that if they change their brand, they will increase sales significantly. Does this ever happen....rarely. All it does is cause bad blood and disruption. Its called grass is greener syndrome, and has more to do with  a cafe owners lack of confidence in themselves and the product they serve, than the quailty of the coffee beans or the brand.

Why do they allow others to influence their direction and decision making? Often this is due to the cafe owners themselves not having a cafe background....there is a lot of that these days.....

I sincerely hope your cafe owners are not that kind.

In the meantime,  make sure your grinder is adjusted correctly for the beans you are using and the machine, use good coffee making technique, brew the coffee properly to best effect, and enjoy your job.


Regardz,
Attilio
very first CS site sponsor.

[Sixthlaw]

Just using the monsoon robust and got to 1st crack on 300g batch at 17mins... Then no second crack by 22mins... Edible?

[BentleighBean]

Sorry if this is slightly skewed off topic, but two questions about robusta while it is under discussion - is it correct that it has a higher caffeine content than arabica, and is it also correct that all instant coffees are made from robusta beans? (I have met these claims a few times in researching caffeine recently...)