In coffee taste evaluations, all coffees are scrutinised through the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) flavour wheel, an industry standard for describing flavour notes most frequently found in coffee, and primed for arabica. This tool, with descriptors like blueberry and maple syrup that are less familiar to the Indian palate, is also meant to encompass flavours found in coffees globally, irrespective of growing origin. This has been a double whammy for champions of robusta to contend with. Pranoy Thipaiah, Managing Partner and fifth generation farmer/producer of Kerehaklu Estate highlights that savoury notes on the flavour wheel like “cereal, and [woody like] cedar are generally undesirable in arabica, but prevalent in robustas.”
Though it is early days still, powerful stories have begun to emerge from the subcontinent and those alongside good product make India well-suited to lead a canephora revolution. Norman Mazel, experienced quality analyst, Q grader & Q Robusta grader, notes that Indian robustas have “spicy flavours, but it’s more creamy, more gentle.”
At its heart, robusta has long been viewed as a cheaper, harsher substitute for arabica, forced upon the market due to arabica’s susceptibility to disease, and inability to thrive with rising temperatures. Coffee consultant Binny Varghese, says “it’s because [arabica] is difficult, people have said it’s better”, thereby creating insurmountable baggage for robusta. Robusta’s poor reputation “is the result of correctable defects in cultivation and processing rather than qualities inherent to the species.” Interestingly, its significantly higher chlorogenic acid content which contributes to its bitterness is also what contains coffee’s touted antioxidant compounds responsible for noteworthy health benefits, demonstrating how we have only scratched the surface of robusta’s uniqueness.
India’s burgeoning specialty arabica consumers have jumped headfirst into the quest for more extreme flavours — those inherent to the beans and usually enhanced by innovative processing methods. Pranoy quips that Indian consumers love our palates to be “smashed with flavours”, translating into a consumer desire for novelty in coffee flavour notes too. Similar innovative processing could provide the gateway for more nuanced robustas with mitigated bitterness, whilst satiating consumer desires for novel flavours.
When Sharan and Eshwar YK, owners and third-generation farmers/producers of Salawara Estate, embarked upon the journey to grow and process high-quality robusta, first showcased in their partnership with Subko, they noticed a distinct lack of robusta-specific agronomic practices. They tell a story most of us know to be true at the back of our minds, but are yet to reconcile with. With the market’s tentativeness towards robusta, coffee producers are reluctant to invest in the creation of added value through “selection picking and processing” Sharan laments. They have witnessed fellow planters dump arabica plants in favour of robusta due to unmanageable labour costs, and weather difficulties. Balanoor’s Rohan echoes that a lot of smallholder farmers are looking to sell their properties or rotate out of coffee entirely, as smaller lands make growing coffee more challenging and unprofitable.