Thailand Robusta - Panid Choosit

Coffee Profile

Continent: Pacific

Country: Thailand

Farm: Panid Choosit

Process: Washed

Region: Tha Sae, Chumphon

Variety: Coffea canephora (Robusta)

Roast Scale

Light Medium Dark

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Tasting Notes 

Fragrances of vanilla and cranberry lead into roasted cashew and caramel in the cup a velvety, milk chocolate body.  With Tamarind and papaya hints in the finish.

Background Info

Paradise Coffee Roasters has been a champion of robusta coffee producers since 2004. And to that effect, Paradise founder Miguel has been supporting and collaborating with robusta growers in India, Ecuador, and Thailand. We believe that if the industry is serious about sustainability and truly cares about coffee producers, we cannot afford to ignore nearly half of the coffee farmers in the world. To us, specialty coffee is not a species, variety, or location. It is a process.

Specialty robusta works great as espresso and is an integral part of our  Espresso Classico blend. Excellent examples like this one also make for a nice low acid pour over coffee.

In December, 2016 Miguel visited the Robusta growing regions of Ranong and Chumphon provinces in Southern Thailand with our exporter friends at Beanspire coffee. Thai Robusta has traditionally been processed for use in instant coffee factories as is common in most countries. This means that farmers strip-pick coffee that are full of underripe cherries and dry the coffee as natural process on dirt floors. Thailand produces around 25,000 tons of Robusta annually this way.

During the visit, we met with a group of progressive farmers who have been trying to rely less on supplying their coffee to instant coffee factories. The group has been testing out washed processing on their Robusta and has been doing better since they embarked on their specialty robusta journey. The year we visited the group had just welcomed a veteran farmer, Panid Choosit, into their network.

Panid has been growing Robusta coffee for 20 years and, in the past, all 8 tons of his coffee went to instant coffee factories. His farm is at an elevation 525 meters  in Tha Sae, Chumphon Province. We worked with Panid during the visit to experiment with the fully washed method. We refined his process that saw the result improved significantly. Beanspire was able to offer a price that's double the typical Thai market rate of commercial grade Robusta coffee for these specialty prepared lots. However, after seeing the group and Beanspire's effort, the commercial grade buyers offered 50% higher market price for Robusta in the area. This reduced the incentive for some farmers to develop specialty grade Robusta. But Panid decided to continue to pursue this improvement anyway and out of 8 tons he switched 1 ton of his production to the specialty. The result is what you will taste in the cup. This is surely one of the best Robusta coffees produced in Thailand.

Tips for brewing with Robusta

Robusta is less dense than arabica coffees and behaves a lot differently in brewing. We have some tips from Barista and Brewers cup champion friends in Ecuador for how techniques to get the best out of single origin robustas.

Pour Over by Johann Buenano 2019 Ecuador Brewers Cup Champion

• Use 15g of ground coffee to 200mL hot water (201-203F)
• Pre-wet the grinds with 30ml water.
• After 30 seconds pour the remaining 170g of water all at once.
• Target brew time of 1:30-1:45

Espresso Recipe from 2016 Ecuador Barista Champion Mario Idrovo

• Use 20g+ (if your basket will allow) with 194-196F Water.
• 1:2 Brewing ratio. 20g coffee =40g brewed espresso
• 23 second extraction time.

Robusta produces a lot of crema so the volume can be very deceptive. It will look like it is pouring too fast, but the crema will settle out after brewing.