Vietnam improving the flavour of robusta coffee beans that are more resistant to global warming than arabica, their tasty cousin
- Vietnam’s robusta coffee is famous for being packed with caffeine, but with little flavour compared to the more popular arabica bean served worldwide
- Farmers and enthusiasts in Vietnam are changing that, hand-picking their beans, which can better cope with a warming planet than arabica beans
Bitter and earthy. Fit for instant brews only. Robusta coffee has a dire reputation, but a small group of farmers in Vietnam is trying to turn the bean’s fortunes around as a warming world threatens the industry.
As an interior designer in Ho Chi Minh City, Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, 42, largely stayed clear of Vietnamese coffee, puzzling over why it didn’t taste as good as cups from abroad.
Now, nearly a decade later, she runs her own coffee farm – “Mori” – in the remote Central Highlands, cultivating robusta she believes can match the world’s favourite bean, arabica, in quality and flavour.
“My beans have a fruity, flowery smell, and they taste strong – but in a gentle way,” Ngoc says at her farm close to the city of Pleiku, in the heart of the Vietnamese robusta region. “Vietnamese farmers need to know it is possible to make these beans taste good.”
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Vietnamese farmers champion robusta coffee beans as climate change threatens arabica supply
Long scorned by giants such as Starbucks, robusta – which has almost twice as much caffeine as arabica – is found in most instant coffees, as well as some espresso blends.
