Roast: Light 

Country: Philippines

Region: Mt. Kalatungan, Bukidnon

Producer: Better Botany

Processing: Anaerobic Natural

Altitude: 1000-1200masl

Tasting Notes Cranberry, kiwi, and hibiscus in the aroma. Strong anaerobic natural derived flavors of Cacao nibs, jackfruit, and berries.

Mt Kalatungan

In the Philippines 90% of the country's production is Robusta, and most of it is locally consumed. Nearly all of this coffees is locally consumed and goes to the instant coffee market. Specialty Arabica is hard to come buy here, let alone robusta

Mt Kalatungun on the island of Mindanao is home to some fantastic arabica coffees like the Kalasan sweet we have featured in the past. Some growers at the lower elevations of 1000-1200masl also grow robusta. This is very high altitude for robusta, which like arabica seems to show an increase in quality as altitude climbs and temperatures cool off. 

We were able to source a very small lot of anaerobic natural processed robusta from this area, most of which went to our Robusta subscription. We have 6lb left to offer for 1 roast date.

Specialty Robusta

Make espresso at home? We’re thrilled to share this amazing robusta from the Philippines - with you, our espresso enthusiasts. Our staff has fallen in love with it, and we’re sure you will too! 

Up until recently robusta coffees have had a bad reputation with specialty buyers, who view them as a cheap, commodity grade bean good for little more than instant coffee. And we know why: strip-picking and careless processing is encouraged to keep costs low for the primary buyers, the instant coffee and discount coffee brands. Unsurprisingly, robusta coffee farmers typically earn half or less that of arabica growers.

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, Thailand, and now the Philippines. 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.

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.