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Comment by jimbo9991 | Hacker News Reader

If aybody has tried Robusta (and you knew you were drinking it) please give us your report.

South Indian filter coffee made with Robusta is my usual drink. To me that is what coffee should taste like. Vietnamese coffee is very similar, right down to the brewing apparatus.

We do the same. I haven't tried Robusta, so I'll take that as a recommendation.

Is Vietnamese coffee blended (eg- with chicory) like madras coffee?

As far as I can tell, Vietnamese coffee doesn't have any chicory.

I typically use a 30/70 blend (30% arabica, 70% robusta) from an artisanal roaster in Helsinki for my espresso. It's the cheapest one they have, but for espresso (and derived drinks), it's by far the best, imo. It's the same style of espresso you get in Italy.

Care to name the roaster ? I'm game for new espresso.

Kaffa roastery

I love Trung Nguyen coffee, a Vietnamese Coffee that's a mixture of Robusta and Arabica. It has a natural chocolate like flavor that's delicious. It used to be very inexpensive but it has more than double in price over the last few years. I suspect it's popularity has picked up and the importers have increased the price accordingly.

The bitterness is not as bad as people may think. I'm one that does not mind it.

I recommend it 100%.

That was the expensive stuff when I was there about 8 years ago, and it still barely passed the test for drinkable.

I understand why the people drink their coffee like a strong espresso with equal parts sweetened condensed milk.

That's my morning coffee. I love the stuff. I'd highly recommend it as well.

I've yet to find a good source of beans but the G7 instant does the trick for me.

When my dad had cancer it was one of the few things he could taste while on chemo so he used to have it with his Ensure drinks.

Is "Trung Nguyen" the same company as "Trung Nguyen Legend"? Dropped by their cafe in Hanoi (old quarter) and loved the no. 5 blend (at least I think that's what I got — memory is fuzzy).

Extremely fragrant Torrefacto-style roasting. Chocolate, butter, caramel notes. I had it black there — no condensed milk or sugar — and bought a bag to brew in the Aeropress at home, also to drink black.

There is almost no complexity in the cup — it's just a very comforting, full-bodied chocolatey flavour. Enjoyable in its own way.

I have been drinking Lavazza Crema e Gusto which is like 70% robusta out of a moka pot for years. It’s my favorite coffee.

Second that. Also buy it now and then and brew in moka pot. Superb taste.

An average Ecuadorean robusta is better than most Vietnamese robustas. Suedhang, the German boutique cafe quoted in the story, has only Ecuadorean and Indian robusta in stock (as canephora, its scientific name), and the Indian variety is only available in a Robusta/Arabica espresso blend, like the one the Boston-based roaster at the end of the article mentions not hating.[1][2]

Couldn't speak to Black Sheep Coffee, which is a UK chain and is only opening its first US location in Dallas this week. Despite promoting robusta's higher caffeine content, it also doesn't sell a caffeinated Vietnamese robusta, only from "southern India, Papua New Guinea, Brazil".[3] Despite the founder's dislike of Arabica, Black Sheep also serves it.[4] Only two of their five beans for shipping are robusta; one's a light/medium roast from India suggested only for espresso, and the other—which is from Vietnam—is decaf.[5]

tl;dr: If you can get an Ecuadorian or Indian light roast robusta/canephora, it probably won't be terrible. Or you can just get a local roaster's average-quality bean and not worry about it.

1: https://www.suedhang.org/en/product/chakra-warmi-en/

2: https://www.suedhang.org/en/product/cuerpo/

3: https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/black-sh...

4: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/black-sheep-coffee-lo...

5: https://leavetheherdbehind.com/collections/all/beans

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