Oatmeal Breakfast - Robusta
Impressions: apricot, dried apple, raisins, chocolate
Roast degree: medium (3/5)
Country: Ecuador
Province: Santa Elena
Region: San Rafael
Farm: Hacienda Legrand
Farmer: Denise Bustamente aka ''the Queen of Robusta''
Altitude: 40 mass
Variety: EcuRobusta
Process: washed
This is our fourth year having the same robusta on the menu. Which is pretty crazy considering our industry wants nothing to do with this variety!
We like to introduce you to something different and unusual every chance we get.
We love to bring you this coffee because it represents something symbolic as well. With climate change affecting coffee farmers everywhere, we have to give robusta a chance because it does present some upsides for the farmers.
Compared to arabica, robusta is more disease resistant, grows at lower altitude (in this case ,a whopping 40masl!) and has better a yield per tree. These are all factors that could help farmers thrive.
How can robusta become tastier if we don't support the efforts of those dedicating their land to it?
Hacienda Legrand is part of a family-run agricultural company founded in Guayaquil more than 40 years ago. Dedicated to the production, investigation, commercialization, and exportation of various products, a big part of their history lies specifically within the genetic improvements of the Robusta species of Coffee.
The variety that they produce is called Ecurobusta, a polyclonal hybrid, developed and studied by them for more than 7 years, as part of a genetic improvement program in Ecuador.
Robusta require cross-pollination between different plants. Because of this, their investigation, developed on the Coast of Ecuador, consists of more than 30 criteria to select these clones, and they analyzed everything from productivity to organoleptic properties.
The results have been achieving scores higher than 80 points on an ARABICA tasting grid.
Denise Bustamente didn’t earn the name the “Queen of Robusta” by chance; her passion and dedication to this species is something special.
Ecurobusta was used for the first time in the National Barista Championships in 2019 and for the first time in the Brewers Cup Championships, where they received 1st Place!
This is the 4th year having this coffee, and it's by far our favourite.
Not only is Hacienda Legrand getting better and better, but we are also getting more comfortable roasting the coffee as it roast quite differently that Arabica.
This coffee is comforting and high in caffeine, so probably a good fit for those days where you need to get sh!t done.
We felt a lot of dried fruits in this coffee, like apples, raisins and apricot (maybe even prune and peach).
It has a lot of sweetness for a robusta, and the finish is very chocolaty.
It's a bit ''dryer'' in terms of mouthfeel, probably because robusta contains vastly different acids than arabica, and this reminded us of your favourite oatmeal breakfast.
| Method | Dose | Ratio | Time |
| Espresso | 16-20 g | 2.1:1 | 28-32 sec |
| Espresso with milk | 16-20 g | 1.8:1 | 26-30 sec |
| Americano | 16-20 g | 2:1 | 26-30 sec |
|
V60/Origami |
18-32 g | 14:1 | 2:45-3:30 min |
|
Chemex & Batch Brew |
40-60 g | 14:1 | 4:45-5:30 min |
|
French Press |
18-25 g | 13:1 | 3:15 min steep time |
Farmer & exporter: Denise Bustamente
Farm: Hacienda Legrand
Importer: The Coffee Quest
Price we paid for the landed coffee at our roastery: 19CAD/kg
Farmgate (and FOB) price: 15CAD/kg
Since the farmer and exporter are the same in this scenario, it means that they control the price from farm all the way until the coffee is safely on board. This gives more power to farmers and we are all for it!
Breakdown of extra cost to explain the difference between price paid and FOB:
- In country transport and logistics: 1,20CAD/kg
- Financing and warehousing: 0,50CAD/kg
- Importer fees: 1CAD/kg
- Shipping form the USA + customs: 1,30CAD/kg