To put it into perspective, there are high and low quality robustas, just as there are high and low quality arabics. What anyone does with either is up to the individual roaster, and the only true test is if the roaster achieves what he wants in the finished product (the brewed / wet coffee). He presumably believes in his product and his is the first palate that needs to be satisfied. After that comes the client test and ie, is it what they want. What the roaster wants to achieve is governed by whatever his individual set of constraints are eg a) what do his clients want? b) what do his clients want to pay? c) what is his overall desired mix cost? d) what is his coffee background and therefore the style that he as an individual wants to reproduce and sell? You dont need to use any robusta at all to make our version / style espresso. I've been designing, roasting and selling 100% arabica blends for years. When made properly (as with any blend) they produce abundant, long lasting crema so no need to inject robusta just for the sake increasing the body and crema in the cup. However if you want to duplicate the kind of generic / "commodity roaster" italian blends that you find in Italy and are imported to here (under the guise of being "true espresso blends"), in order to get that character you have to inject some robusta. You then realise you have to adopt the same style of "drinking" they have in their market which is to throw sugar at it. It turns into a particular style of espresso style that is predominant in italy, but not here. If you like that then its good, and if you dont its not good. Who is "right"? ie, whose style of espresso is the correct one? Well, in Italy their style reigns supreme, but in Australia our style reigns supreme. Two different markets. In any case you can use robusta how and when you like, and when all said and done, if the resulting cup of coffee is "good" by anyone's particular standard, then that's all that matters. To put it bluntly. If you design a blend that includes whatever proportion of robusta, and it passes the cupping test, then who cares what went into the blend? The "we only use 100% arabica" and "robusta is evil" crowd are nothing more than smart marketeers jumping on the bandwagon to try and get you to spend your dollar with them and I can assure you, there are some extremely low end arabicas out there, but the marketing machine never tells you that. Hope that helps the level of understanding a little more. All that said, I for one do not appreciate any blends with high proportions of robusta (be they ever so good quality) in them and if / when using robusta, always use top stuff and use sparingly to add only the character desired, and nothing to do with mix costs because certainly, you can buy some very very cheap arabicas anyway if you want to stay in the "100% arabica" school of marketing. Too much marketing, hype and BS in the market I am afraid, all designed to get you to spend you dollar with whoever, instead of concentrating on what is good. A cynic to the end. Rgdz, Attilio very first Crema site sponsor
