Vietnam Robusta Central Highlands Vietnam: Robusta, Central Highlands

Vietnam Robusta is a special animal, especially to roast. If you know what you're buying it won't be a surprise. There's a reason it's generally not viewed by coffee lovers as a great cup on it's own, though some people like that way. . I use it only one way. That's to make a Vietnamese coffee drinks with condensed sweetened milk. It's flavor and caffeine content are a good match for the sweetness of the condensed milk.

First of all let me admit I ordered this by mistake. Not really sure how it happened but I typically wouldn’t order 3lbs of any robusta coffee but if I did there would 5lbs of a decent arabica to cut it with. This for me was a very confusing coffee, I tried light med and dark roast and none of them hit the mark for me. However coffee is a personal preference no matter what blend or type. Taste for me was toooo earthy almost dirty. It won’t be hitting my roaster again I’m afraid , but some people like it. Just not my cup of joe……I now have 1.5lbs of Vietnamese coffee free to a good home!

Moka pot, Aeropress, french press, vacuum pot; roasts from light to dark; by itself or blended in; this is not only a little pleasantly extra buzzy, it actually tastes great. The flavor is more quartet than a full orchestra, but the Beatles managed to sound pretty good even before they could afford the London Philharmonic as a backup band. I don't (coudn't) drink it all day. For weekend mornings, or as an eye-opener for an extra early morning, this is quite nice.

Be prepared! This bean will amaze you!! Firstly, if you don't already, spread the beans on a cookie sheet to pick through them, there'll be a few unsavory characters in there, plus some lint from the pa ckaging..., no biggy! The aromas during roasting were quite unexpected, changing and growing as the roast progressed. One of the most exciting roasts I've done! The development after first crack is really fast - be ready to move!! After removing the beans the cracking continued longer than any other bean I' ve roasted. This actually helped even out the overall color. After cooling and degassing comes the excitement of the first grind and, once again, the aromas are intense! First cup yeilded a full bodied, yet mellow brew. Very satisfying. Makes an awesome cappuccino, and adding chocolate gives new meaning to moccaccino!! Will definately buy again and suggest you do too!!

I got these to blend in with Timor beans for an extra caffeine kick for own version of Death Wish coffee. The blend ratio is 25% Vietnam Robusta and 75% Timor. I personally prefer Both brought to a dark roast. I'm pretty happy with it, as is my wife. I do want to point out that the Vietnam Robusta beans roast a lot faster and at a lower temperature that the Timor beans, so roast the separately, or the Robusta will catch fire before the Timor barely starts second Crack. I'll definitely by more!

This bean is a very goo bean if roasted to the correct point. It needs to be roasted to just after first crack to have a great coffee. Also roast it to a deep french roast and use it as an addition to the light roast to give it more body.

As a coffee lover, I don't want to rate this bean as the worst, but have no choice. This is a really bad one or really good one only for savvy roasting master. Since I use a cheap popcorn air blower to roast it, I'm not in the position to give it negative review, but I can't resist. This coffee beans won't change their color much while roasting, no cracking sound, either. I guess I roasted it too long although beans are still in light brown, more like yellowish. I usually roast beans for 5 minutes each, and this time I roasted for 7 minutes since the color didn't change from light brown. It tastes really acid, yes burnt. Denny's coffee tastes better. I know it's my fault perhaps roasting too long with a cheap popcorn maker. But I have never burnt beans before and Ethiopian, Kenya, and Rwanda beans always taste heavenly good. I was shocked by this taste. My tung still feels so bitter. Somebody, tell me. Should I throw this away since it's too burnt, or this is the taste of this bean? If so, Starbucks coffee could be the best on this planet to praise. That'd be the end of the world to me. Roasting instruction to this type of peculiar type of beans from experts would be appreciated before a novice roaster like me tries one. By the way, I'm not dismissing Coffee Bean Corral at all. I'll continue patronizing them as my favorite green bean vender. It's just this is my first experience that I got so shocked of the tastes.

Twelve of our clients really love this coffee. In fact, I delivered 2 bags to a couple yesterday. The man actually hugged the bag, smelled the coffee through the valve and said thank you thank you, thank you. Robusta has an undeserved bad rep but the true coffee lovers we serve just love it. Will always keep this coffee in stock for our customers. Thank you. Convoy Road Coffee Roasters

This is some really good coffee and sits as my second favorite! Having low expectations, I toyed with it, split the pound into quarters, roasted four different ways, and mixed them together. The brew is a smooth, full-bodied delight! Ordering more pounds!

This was my second time roasting this bean, the first time it got burnt as the first crack is almost none existent. The second time I roasted to second crack. The bean has a very earthy flavor, not what I like for a coffee. Will try a different roast level and see if that changes anything.

My son and I share the passion of roasting coffee, he followed the path I had blazed, and we often shared experiences with various beans, we both use Coffee bean corral exclusively. One day he walks in and plops a large zip-lock of this Vietnamese Robusta in my hand and says try it... its different... I have never tried Robusta ever in my 15 years of coffee snobbery roasting. it is what it is... cant complain, yeah it doesn't taste like anything, look at the reviews, yes i felt the caffeine punch, if i was into blending, then i could see its usefulness as an added punch of pep, and maybe the crema... i believe it could bring its qualities into a blend without distracting from the flavor virtues of other beans. it lacks the brilliance and complexity of the other beans I have been loving and enjoying over the years.good or bad depends. as for the roast it was an experience like no other bean. pay attention, the first crack was silent, and of any other bean in my experience, it produce almost zero chaff... the first sign of crack was when the second crack started. and then i noticed this... the beans did not roast evenly, if a rainbow was shades of brown... these beans were the rainbow, light to dark and shiny. I am no expert but it made me wonder if a mix of farms and their beans made this batch. i wish i could post a picture here. when i have guests and proudly serve my coffees from very specific origins and outstanding flavor, i discourage sugar and flavored creamers, kind of like i discourage slamming shots of top shelf Scotch or Tequila or Bacanora... but then, there are people who insist that's the way they do it... I see this coffee as a perfect one to serve for those who don't care about the subtle tasting notes and just blindly dump sugar and flavored creamers into their coffee... it has its place and my Respect, even here and now i have never spent so much energy on a review of a coffee. because it was so different. good luck all and May the coffee Gods bless us all

I tried roasting these in my SR300. It seemed as if they did not want to get dark. I never heard a crack. I roasted them till they finally appeared dark and as I suspected I it was too long. What little taste it had was not good. I've always been more than pleased with the beans I get from CBC so I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong, especially with these particular beans. Any advice on achieving the correct roast will be greatly appreciated.

This is a tough one to review. It's hard to review anything according to taste because, as we all know, taste is completely subjective. My wife and I, being fairly new to the coffee bean roasting game, were excited to try this Vietnamese bean because we had really enjoyed other Asian beans. This tastes nothing like anything else we've had. We drank the entirety of the the 1/2 lb I roasted to a medium/dark level. It is earthy, it is nutty, though maybe not in the way I would have liked. We will probably be giving the remaining 1/2lb of the 1lb bag we purchased to someone else with a "you really should give this a try and tell us what you think" attached to it. Here is where this bean shines: If you are looking to show people how vastly different coffees can indeed taste; that not all coffee tastes the same, then this would be a great example of how a Robusta differs from an Arabica or even just help clearly show the range of flavors that can be found. This is not a BAD coffee, but it is DIFFERENT. I would recommend everyone who is experimenting with roasting and tasting coffee to at least get a 1/2lb sample just to further enhance your palate a further deepen your understanding of coffee and its range of flavors. As far as Coffee Bean Corral goes, they always get a 5 star rating from us!

I tried different roast levels and brewing methods with no real positive results. Will probably have to use as a blend,