Canephora, or robusta espresso, is experiencing a renaissance within the specialty-coffee world. As we speak, we discover the roots of the species and the way manufacturing is being revolutionized right this moment.
BY ISABELLE MANI
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Featured photograph by Rafael Rocha
These days, it looks as if canephora is without doubt one of the hottest subjects of dialog within the specialty-coffee trade. We just lately had protection of Mikolaj Pociecha’s guide “Robusta/Canephora” and obtained to attempt Cherry Love Espresso’s new Canephora Expertise Field Set. As well as, we spoke to Lucas Venturim of Venturim Farms about revolutionizing canephora manufacturing in Brazil. As we speak, we’ll take a step again and return to the roots of canephora—and why the espresso species is experiencing a renaissance within the espresso world right this moment.
Whereas “robusta” is the business time period used throughout the trade, Coffea canephora (or “canephora”) is the botanical identify of the espresso species—one which encompasses genetic and geographical range. Over the previous twenty years, agro-scientific analysis and specialty methods, resembling managed fermentation and selective harvesting, have elevated the standard of robusta and begun to reshape its notion within the international market.
A key milestone got here in 2010, when the Espresso High quality Institute (CQI) launched the High quality Robusta Requirements, adapting arabica protocols to acknowledge the species’ distinctive traits and reinforce its worth within the specialty sector.
Importantly, using the phrase “wonderful,” fairly than “specialty,” displays the hassle to understand canephora by itself sensory phrases, with out forcing comparisons to arabica. This protocol helped create a structured methodology to guage robustas which are free from defects and possess fascinating sensory attributes, permitting the trade to maneuver past a commodity mindset.
As we speak, actors throughout science, consumption, and international developments are organically converging round canephora, not as a rival to arabica, however as a foundational species that stored the espresso world turning for over a century. Canephora has sustained economies, communities, and agricultural resilience—usually with out recognition. Whereas it has traditionally acquired solely a fraction of the analysis and quality-focused consideration given to arabica, we are actually witnessing a renewed international effort to understand, consider, and perceive canephora.
Genetics and Biology
Arabica is the kid of canephora and Coffea eugenioides—a pure hybrid. In contrast to arabica, which self-fertilizes, canephora is open-pollinated—its offspring are genetically numerous until cloned, making selection naming extra complicated. Due to this, canephora is finest evaluated by genetic group, not selection; its cross-pollinating nature makes plant conduct extremely context-dependent.
The 2 predominant genetic teams of canephora are the Congolese Group—usually known as robusta—and the Kouillou-Guinean Group. Each originated in Central Africa, significantly in what’s now the Republic of Congo and surrounding areas. The Kouillou group is related to the western elements of the area, whereas the Congolese group is extra widespread within the central and japanese zones.
The Congolese group contains vigorous, disease-resistant crops that thrive in lowland tropics. It’s discovered within the species’ endemic origins such because the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Gabon, and has been extensively adopted in producing nations like Vietnam, India, Ivory Coast, and the Brazilian Amazon.
The Kouillou or Guinean group tailored particularly properly in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state and helped form the nation’s fashionable canephora sector. Commercially often called conilon in Brazil, the identify derives from “Kouillou,” the area within the present-day Republic of Congo the place the unique crops had been first collected.
Angola is dwelling to Kouillou-type crops and performed a key function within the growth of Brazil’s conilon. Gabon and Cameroon maintain each wild and cultivated populations that align largely with the Congolese group, with some genetic overlap as a result of transitional nature of the area.
Canephora as a Survival Crop
Canephora, commercially marketed as “robusta espresso,” is the second most traded espresso species globally, accounting for roughly 40% of worldwide quantity in keeping with ICO information. Its prime 5 producing nations right this moment are Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and Uganda. In comparison with arabica, canephora is extra immune to illnesses and thrives in larger temperatures in lower-altitude farming (sometimes 200–800 meters), in heat and humid subtropical or tropical climates.
The primary business cultivation of canephora was documented within the late nineteenth century, in what’s now the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda—each native origins of the species. From there (1900–1930), farming expanded into Asian and African areas resembling Indonesia, Angola, India, and Timor, pushed by the species’ larger resistance to espresso rust. The rust epidemic in arabica crops was a significant turning level that laid the inspiration for robusta’s international unfold.
Amid wars and post-colonial transitions, robusta usually proved the one espresso that would develop and ship underneath stress—turning into central to soluble espresso and high-volume blends.
Robusta and Commerce
It was solely within the Nineteen Nineties that canephora absolutely entered international commerce by way of the convergence of post-Chilly Struggle liberalization, international consumption development, and the scaling up of manufacturing in Brazil and post-war Vietnam. Its inclusion in futures contracts on the LIFFE espresso futures market—now often called Intercontinental Alternate (ICE) Futures Europe—marked this new period. As we speak, it makes up over 40% of whole espresso traded quantity, with annual output practically tripling prior to now three a long time.
This era could have solidified robusta’s place within the provide chain—however not but within the dialog on high quality. And whereas arabica’s hyperlink to “high quality” gained momentum by way of specialty-coffee, robusta was hardly ever provided the identical consideration. There was no want for learning and bettering high quality, simply yield numbers—till very just lately, says Dr. Enrique Alves of Embrapa, a part of the crew of researchers releasing the Canephora Taste Wheel this yr. “Old style robustas had been dry and woody. Now we’re seeing fruitiness, boozy notes, even brightness. It’s an entire new universe,” he shared with Barista Journal.
For Enrique, the aim is to not evaluate species, however to construct a extra numerous and inclusive future. “The way forward for espresso isn’t arabica versus robusta,” he says. “It’s about embracing range, and canephora has quite a bit to supply.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Isabelle Mani (she/her) is a author, journalist, and communicator specializing within the worldwide espresso trade. Since 2017, she has targeted on writing articles and options for numerous worldwide espresso information retailers. Isabelle has traveled to coffee-producing nations resembling Colombia, Kenya, Rwanda, China, and Brazil to check and analysis espresso. She holds coaching certifications from the Specialty Espresso Affiliation (SCA) and the Espresso High quality Institute (Arabica Q Grading).
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