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Robusta vs arabica - consumption levels

Comments

  • mycuppamycuppa
    Ah yes, the silly season is upon us and the dance is in motion. That time of year when most of the large contracts are struck between exporters and importers - the volatile Feb - Mar period for shipments of new season crops arriving in April - June. At the moment, there are spot-fires everywhere but the hidden dragon in all of this is the prospect of coffee leaf rust epidemic in Central America that will no doubt end in tears for us all via pricing spikes for our fave El-Sals, Guats, Hondy's, Nicas, etc. as the game of supply versus demand plays out. A variation of 7% in crop yield and a price spikes up is largely an over-reaction by the traders seeking to bluff and bluster their way to another handsome and not-so-insignificant profit on a futures contract - smart traders win on a rising or falling market and they rely upon this type volatility to make money. It's true that robusta diffs have rallied against a falling arabica, but I have a sneaking suspicion the demand has been driven by the boom in single-serve portion control and the energy drink markets. Robusta quality has come a long way in the last few years and quality Roasters will continue to experiment with emerging quality robustas but it's just the humble lab-rat sort of stuff to see if they can improve upon their current formulas or create a clearer differentiation in their blends, rather than the naive and paranoid default first-choice everyone thinks to cut costs.
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  • UNMUNM
    http://www.freshcup.com/featured-article.php?id=146 http://www.venezianocoffee.com.au/sethuraman-estate-robusta-kaapi-royale-first-certified-specialty-robusta/
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  • Brett HBrett H
    Interesting.  Love your take on it Jeff!  I love both robusta and arabica but I personally find the flavour profile of inflated prices and BS not to my taste!  :rofl:
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  • mycuppamycuppa
    Having a zero bag inventory of robusta in my extensive collection of coffees is likely to change towards the end of this year - tasted some excellent examples from the brokers recently. Over the last 7 years, I have literally exhausted the single origin Juggernaut and subsequently arabica leaves very few remaining challenges. The whole why, what, how and when of robusta remains about the only real exciting frontier on the horizon. I want to prepare excellent examples of coffee with robusta and be really proud of it and I will not care if anyone thinks of it as a poo-ticket because it contains robusta - it's what the coffee does that will be exciting. When those of us in the industry see the tired, lazy journalism of robusta usage being linked to cost cutting it's hard to control not getting fired up because it's just not news and just not interesting.
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  • Brett HBrett H
    He said poo-ticket  :rofl: I hear you Jeff and I understand your frustration!  Most people who claim to be coffee aficionadi and have coffee at my place are tricked into drinking Robusta.  I then surprise them with a 'guess what that was' moment when they profess to love it.  YES, I've not had one yet that has said, too this or that.  :thumb:
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