Vietnam Robusta

Grade 1 scr 18 & Grade 2 scr 13, 5% black & broken

Vietnam is the largest robusta producer in the world and its Dak Lak and Central Highlands crop sets the physical reference for the ICE London contract. The trade grades it plainly: Grade 1 at screen 18 with tight defect limits, Grade 2 at screen 13 or 16 permitting 5% black and broken beans, moisture at 12.5% maximum, foreign matter at 0.5% or less. Almost all of it is natural-processed — dried in the cherry on patios — which suits robusta's heavier, woody, more bitter profile rather than fighting it. Robusta carries roughly twice the caffeine of arabica and substantially more chlorogenic acid, which is precisely why it does two jobs arabica cannot: it produces dense, persistent crema in espresso, and it delivers soluble yield in instant manufacture at a fraction of arabica's cost.

Buy Vietnamese robusta for exactly those jobs — soluble and instant production, espresso blends needing crema and body, ready-to-drink and coffee-flavoured manufacture, and any programme where cost per kilo of extractable solids is the deciding metric. It is emphatically not a substitute for arabica in a filter or single-origin cup; the flavour is woody and rubbery by comparison and no amount of careful roasting makes it delicate. Grade 2 at 5% black and broken is the commercial volume standard and perfectly sound for soluble; step up to Grade 1 screen 18 where the beans are roasted and ground visibly, or where an espresso blend needs cleaner robusta character. Prices reference ICE London in USD per tonne rather than the arabica "C" in cents per pound, so quotes are not directly comparable between the two species. CBIL brokers Vietnamese robusta against verification of screen, black and broken percentage, moisture and foreign matter, on FOB Ho Chi Minh City, CFR and CIF terms.