The rise of Robusta in the global coffee value chain has continued, with the Canephora varietal now possessing its own flavour wheel, on par with Arabica.
Production of Robusta coffee has increased dramatically since the 1990s – when it made up roughly 25 per cent of global coffee production – up to roughly 44 per cent in 2023. Only Arabica (55 per cent) is grown more than the Canephora varietals of Robusta and Conilon.
With its rise in popularity, a team of researchers decided it was time to establish a tool to help tasters describe the unique characteristics of the species. Led by Dr Fabiana Carvalho, the research group recruited a team of 49 professional coffee graders from Brazil and Switzerland to evaluate 67 samples in three cupping sessions. Brazil and Switzerland were chosen to represent exporters and importers in the process.
A total of 103 descriptors were represented in the new three-tiered wheel, with the research paper submitted by Dr Carvalho and her team stating the existing flavour wheel was unsuitable for varietals other than Arabica.
“Recently, it has been observed that the industry-standard coffee flavour wheel may not be suitable for coffee beverages produced from different Coffea species,” the report states.
“As an anecdotal observation, when graders are trying to describe the differences in flavour characteristics of high-quality C. arabica and C. canephora beverages, they commonly refer to the differences between white and red wines, with C. arabica being perceived as ‘more delicate’, and C. canephora as ‘deeper’.”
The 67 samples used to develop the Robusta flavour wheel were sourced from 13 countries of origin: Brazil, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatamala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Uganda, and Vietnam.
The graders used the Rate-All-That-Apply (RATA) list as well as the CQI standard cupping protocol for quality assessment of overall attributes and the final quality score of 0 to 100.
The report states that the development of the Robusta flavour wheel is an important milestone for the entire coffee industry.
“The aroma/flavour wheel can be used as a tool to identify, understand, and map sensory characteristics of C. canephora that are most important or valued in different market,” it says.
“Standardising the description of C. canephora aroma/flavours in a replicable way is important not only for the coffee industry, but also for scientists working on quality improvement.”
