However, visiting the Sethuraman Estate in India late last year and after cupping what the Coffee Quality Institute is now calling R Grade Robusta we have completely changed our stance and we are now roasting a collection of Sethuraman Estate Robusta’s for our customers to try. And so you should! 

NB: we are still of the opinion that most other Robusta crop is in our view undrinkable and we are only talking here about Robusta from the Sethuraman Estate SLN274 varietal. In general Robusta cof­fee has quite a sig­nif­i­cant taste dif­fer­ence when compared to Arabica and the spe­cialty end of cof­fee indus­try has spent years putting Robusta down in terms of taste and quality and rightly so - that is until now. The Robusta’s we are roasting have been treated like top grade Arabica in terms of horticultural pampering. The coffee has been bet­ter cared for pre crop, drip irrigated, organically nurtured, selectively har­vested and supremely processed to the ultimate degree. 

In basic terms the plants and the crop have been given every oppor­tu­ni­ty to attain their full poten­tial as a spe­cialty coffee and it is now our job having visited the farm and hunted out the crop to roast­ it and show / tell our customers that this Robusta is well worth drink­ing and we should champion the dis­cov­ery of new, inter­est­ing cup pro­file. 

In the cup the Sethuraman Estate Mandarin has huge bittersweet dark chocolate notes; the mouthfeel is thick and syrupy with malty caramel notes in the finish. This is a big bold cup. In the cup the Sethuraman Estate Peaberry has the same bittersweet dark chocolate notes, but with some light acidity, quite a refined syrupy mouthfeel again nutty caramel in the finish with a clean cup. The Sethuraman Estate AB we are yet to profile.

We would recommend trying this coffee brewed clean as a filter drip dosed as standard at 60g per litre. We have tested this crop for espresso and believe a blend can take up to 25% with no issues so that is going to be interesting.

 

*The Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) is a nonprofit organization working internationally to improve the quality of coffee and the lives of the people who produce it. CQI provides training and technical assistance to coffee producers and other individuals in the supply chain to increase the value, volume and sustainability of high quality coffee production. CQI also works toward building institutional capacity in coffee producing countries by creating systems and infrastructure that encourage a focus on quality that leads to higher farmer incomes.