you are welcome. good luck with it. :+1:
After that recipe, I’m fixin’ to cut them dogs loose; that’s southern for, “eat with fervor”.
Here’s some serious grinding.
You’ve got it wrong and backwards:
Robusta beans are generally cheaper beans, have a more bitter taste and may have up to 50% more caffeine per bean.
Robusta beans are preferred for espresso because they’re cheap and with a dark roast, that bitterness can be roasted out, but while the caffeine content is also roasted out, more will remain.
As far as Arabica being grown in more arid climates, that is also mostly false.
I’ve roasted my own beans for 18 years and have bought beans from some of the best farms/plantations found on Earth and I never sought out the Robusta varietal. Life’s too short.
Chris
He’s grinding with some massive burrs.
And pizzer, too. NYC is touted as having the best pizza, never replicated elsewhere, and it’s been posited that it’s because of the water.
A pizza place (chain?) in Florida actually “imports” NYC water by truck to make their dough.
Considering some of the “slimy” water I’ve had elsewhere (literally feels as if it leaves a waxy coating on my lips), I have little difficulty believing it.
Robusta is “regular” coffee and Arabuca is the pinchier more Starbucky coffee, right?
A while back I saw A PBS documentary on your watersheds. It didn’t mention any filtration, just much emphasis on one long engineering project boring this 60-foot tunnel under some parts of the city. A lot of water there. A look over Wiki seems that would have been Water Tunnel No.3. By 2026 it should be completed, then the 1st and 2nd tunnels can be closed for a long-awaited maintenance (built 1917 & 1935). It seems you don’t have much filtration (~10%) but everything is UV disinfected.
So I take it your water supply is clean enough without all the addons (chlorine/buffers/suspenders). Most probably why better tasting.
Well, according to Chris, I’ve got it all wrong and backwards about coffee. A quick refresher on Wiki, he’s right about the Robustas being more bitter. The Arabicas are used in better coffee shops. My understanding was the Arabica beans at the bottom of the mountain had drier seasons which made the beans more intense (acid). But Wiki mentions none of this, other than the families are distinct and prevalent to one region more than another. For my purchases, the bins have a particular naming *Columbian, Espresso, Napolitano” and “100% Arabica” labelled. When I would buy from a specialty coffee roaster, the fellow had explained he would add the Robusta into the Arabicas to cut down on bitterness and strong aftertaste. Perhaps I misunderstood that.
So which is which is all in the air.
The opposite, but not etched in stone.
Starbucks gets a lot of their beans from Vietnam.
Vietnam is the largest producer of the coffee bean in the world and ‘almost’ exclusively grows the robusta varietal.
That’s generally why they roast the shit out of their beans.
‘Char-Bucks’ is a thing and for good reason.
Chris
Yeah, I never much cared for too-dark roasts. Tastes ashy.
You should try a South American/Latin style dark roast. I think you might really like it. Dark roast brings out more oils and sugar from the bean and is less acidic. If done well it should be sweeter. The European way is to use a high temperature and short timeframe. The Latin dark roast is a lower temperature but longer timeframe. The European method brings out less oil and sugar and tends to be much more bitter. It is also less forgiving in the roasting process. A really good dark European roast has almost a “toasty/Smokey” taste and is not overly bitter. But it is very hard to get right. The Latin dark roast is the least bitter as it has all the oils and sugars of a dark roast but it avoids the bitter and burnt taste. Try Mayorga’s Cafe Cubano and see what you think!
I also agree with you and Lojik about the importance of a good grinder. Grind consistency is very important. I’m not sure if I adequately emphasized that in my previous post. Good water, quality beans freshly and properly ground, in a strong enough mixture, makes everything else pale in comparison.
Lot of misinformation.
Roasting dark burns out flavor/caffeine, it doesn’t add anything as it’s mostly subtractive.
If you enjoy sucking on a charcoal briquette, than it’s what you’ll favor.
Chris
oh boy, never thought I’d say something that sounds like I’m actually defending charbucks…
but they actually buy high-scoring quality beans, they just roast it really really dark, even what they call “blonde roasts” are way too dark. Try drinking a cup of any of their filter coffee black. Then go to a “3rd wave” cafe that either roast their own beans or a multi-roastery cafe to compare. Not sure if they use robusta in their espresso blends, but that would make sense since noone drinks straight espresso there, it’s practically always in a tall cup with lots of milk and sweeteners.
Not making judgment on what’s good/bad, different ways to enjoy anything…
Brazil is by far the largest producer. In general, robusta go into big cans of ground coffee and pods. And in general, few espresso blends add robusta, and if so, it’s very small like 10% for added crema and lower cost, esp when price of an espresso is somewhat regulated in Italy. You’d have to look pretty far and wide to find any robusta in “3rd wave” cafes…
Chris If I misspoke I appreciate the feedback. And you are right that a dark roast burns off more caffeine. I don’t think I said it adds anything though. What I meant by “brings out” was that it draws out the oil and the sugar. Looking at the beans clearly shows that this is true of the former. Here are some sources that I believe agree with my statements and may prove helpful.
Slow Roasted in the Latin Tradition
If there was something else you think I messed up, let me know. I understand many do not prefer dark roast. But I don’t quite understand the animosity towards those who do. If you like lapsang souchong tea, dark chocolate, etc., then a dark roast might be for you.
SS, no worries. I’m just saying that if you’re a fan of flavor, especially the ‘origin terra’ of a particular bean, roasting too dark is a bad thing, as one is left with a smoky charcoal taste, which is not native to the particular bean.
When the boutique coffee buyers go and sample lots in a particular region, they just barely roast them to the color of straw! This level of roast gives them the best shot of gauging origin profiles.
Chris
Thanks, Chris. Nice to see an affirmation. I hate Starbucks dark roast coffee. I find it’s over-roasted and generally quite bitter. It only works in a latte or Americano, where lots of milk can counter that acidity. So, if they’re sourcing mostly Robusta, then no wonder!
if you want to counter bitterness (aside from avoiding it) you can add a pinch of salt.
salt is much better at killing bitterness than sweet.
Hmmm, I wonder if that works in an IPA? 
Wouldn’t that be great—i can’t drink the IPA.
@ Dude, i tried about 20 grains of salt in a cup, it may have cut the bitters or i couldn’t tell; will double the dose and try again, then repeat until i can notice a change.
i wonder how the salt beats the bitters—is it a location on the tongue thing?
Yeah, I don’t like IPAs (my son loves them though), but sometimes I try new beers at the local microbrew (fun to drink a flight of 4 or 5 different ones) and one never knows just how bitter it might be. If I ever get stuck with one that’s too bitter for my taste, I will try the salt trick. Wouldn’t want to waste beer I’m paying for.
So, I picked up a bag of the same type coffee as usual, but whole beans instead of ground. And Amazon delivered my grinder just before suppertime. I ground about 10 beans to check my grind (medium) and tossed them (in case of any foreign stuff still in the grinder). Then I weighed some beans, ground them, brewed them in the Aeropress the usual time length, added the usual cream and sweetener, and………. frankly, this coffee blows away the pre-ground stuff! 
It’s a bigger difference than I expected. Might start drinking coffee more often!
not sure about location on the tongue. Alton Brown adds a pinch of salt to the ground before brewing.
*note he use the 195°F-205°F range i talked about earlier. Alton has an episode of Good Eats where
he prepares Grapefruit Brulee and talks about salt vs sugar vs bitter. Alton and his crew are great at explaining things.
<off_topic> as for taking the bitter out of IPAs… just try another kind of beer, or perhaps a different IPA.
Blood Orange IPAs are delicious in my opinion.