10 years ago Paolo Dicembre started roasting coffee on a little 200gm countertop air roaster for his coffee training centre in Lilyfield. Some time later Paolo controversially launched Australia's first 100% Robusta blend in 2009. It was the beginning of a change that was about to sweep through the Australian coffee industry. The raised awareness of the Robusta bean led many coffee roasters to use Robusta as part of their blend recipes.
Just like an artist, with tubes of paint and palate can create all the subtle colour changes of the spectrum, so too coffee blenders have a similar ‘tool base’ to create shades of flavours. Blending is a very serious business, where blend recipes hold high value and the science is exacting.
Understanding the bean origins, roast profile, and characteristics all point towards one thing... the taste. Coffee roasters spend copious amounts of time and money to formulate a blend that separates them from the competition. Cherry Black uses Robusta beans in a number of their coffee blends.
