12oz/340g of whole bean coffee. Tasting notes of strawberry, whipped butter, and bosc pear. This coffee is a medium roast with mild acidity and a long finish.
Origin: Vietnam
Region: Lộc Thành, Bảo Lộc, Lâm Đồng
Farm: Future Farm
Importer: Karmic Circle
Varieties: Robusta TR Cultivars
Elevation: 800+ masl
Process: Winey Natural
Tasting Notes: Strawberry, Whipped Butter, Bosc Pear
Note from Maya:
This coffee comes from one of the most renowned robusta producers in the world, Mr. Toi, of Future Coffee Farm. The first time I heard about his coffee farm was when I was preparing to compete at the National level of the US Barista Championship with a 100% robusta routine. This was a significant milestone for robusta and Vietnamese coffee in the US, as I was the first person to qualify for nationals using all robusta. I had bought a book about tasting robusta and one of the farms they kept talking about was Future Farm (the book is called "I would like your fruitiest, funkiest, most fermented Canephora on the menu" by Mikolaj Pociecha and it changed the way I approached coffee tasting as a whole).
I have been trying to buy green (unroasted) coffee from the importer who Mr. Toi works with for three years now and it finally came to fruition this year. The interesting thing about buying coffee from a small and specialized importer like Karmic Circle is that you commit to the coffee before it is anywhere close to being ready to come to the US, so you have to choose before you can taste a sample of anything. The Winey Natural Robusta was an exciting offering because I was able to taste last year's crop of the same coffee from another roaster. I remember the coffee vividly and I shared it with as many friends as I could. It had a full, round body, lingering finish, and pleasant fruity qualities that surprised me at the time. I even blended it with some Ethiopian arabica I had laying around (which I highly recommend doing) and had it as espresso.
Robusta coffee is special to me and something I love to offer. I hope that you can learn about how to taste this distinct species of coffee by approaching it with openness and curiosity. I have seen so much messaging within specialty coffee circles that insinuates that robusta coffee is inherently less valuable or less delicious than arabica coffee, but the truth is that it is different and should not be compared to arabica coffee 1:1. Much like you may have a preference between red or white wine, arabica and robusta coffee are distinct from each other.