Robusta is often misunderstood and underrepresented in the world of specialty coffee, but through pure curiosity we sampled this coffee from the team at Great Cherry in Vietnam through Crop to Cup and were pleasantly surprised at what we tasted. It was an opportunity we couldn't pass up and we're excited to share this coffee with y'all.
Sẻ, the original robusta species in Vietnam, produces relatively small and dense beans, with a relatively low yield of 3 – 4 tons of cherry per hectare. The reason it’s maintained is because of its quality; richer, denser flavors with more mucilage that allows better fermentation in anaerobic and honey processes.
Duong Thanh Toan was born into coffee and manages a washing station in his home town in Cư M’Gar, referred to as the Napa Valley of Vietnam for its fine coffee and finest wines. Thanh Toan has partnered with the team at Great Cherry to bring his expertise and knowledge in producing this coffee to scale and together they're working to put Robusta in the minds of specialty coffee drinkers. In our opinion, this coffee is definitely worthy of praise.
With this unique process, cherries are run through a color sorter to select the right level of overripe desired for anaerobic or honey processing. From here cherries are washed and floated to separate by density before being sealed in air-tight bags and tanks. They are removed after 2-3 days for a day of drying before returning to a longer fermentation. All in all, including 2 weeks for drying, the process takes 45 days.
Flavor
This coffee retains some classic characteristics of robusta with strong nuttiness and herbal tea notes but also carries with it a sweet tropical note of jackfruit with and a winey aroma. For people who are curious about robusta, we think this could push you down the rabbit hole.
This coffee was sourced by Showroom Coffee/Crop to Cup.
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Region: Đắk Lắk Provence, Cu Mgar District
Variety: Robusta Sẻ
Altitude: 700 masl
