robustan.
/rə(ʊ)ˈbʌstə/, U.S. /roʊˈbəstə/ An evergreen variety of coffee tree, Coffea canephora var. robusta, originating in western Africa and now widely cultivated elsewhere for its heavy crops of small beans; (also) the beans (or, as a count noun, a bean) produced by such a tree, often used in the manufacture of instant coffee. Frequently attributive, esp. in robusta coffee.
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > coffee bean or plant > [noun] > coffee plant > types of
coffee-tree1784
parchment1883
stump tree1891
robusta1908
1908 H. Wright My Tour Eastern Rubber Lands 65 Where the same estate has its Para rubber planted through or with nutmegs, Liberian, Java and Robusta coffee,..cacao, kapok, and other useful trees, the attention of the manager is necessarily diverted to crops other than Para.
1909 Philippine Agric. Rev. 2 590 A new variety of coffee known as ‘robusta’..was discovered some years ago growing wild on the estates in Africa.
1944 Empire Jrnl. Exper. Agric. 12 191 Robusta coffee..grows wild in many of the wetter forests of Uganda.
1961 F. L. Wellman Coffee v. 81 The most common variety is named Robusta, and this type has large, dark-green leaves... Trees of the Robusta variety tend to have a flattened top.
1976 Times 7 May 22/5 Shortages will increase the demand for African robustas.
1990 Illustr. London News Summer 76/4 Robusta beans are used to make most instant coffee.
2003 E. Powell tr. S. Jamal Arabian Flavours 185 They did not then know..of the two types of coffee: Arabica and Robusta.
2009 J. Neilson & B. Pritchard Value Chain Struggles iii. 86 In general terms, however, Robusta plantations tend to be more suitable to inter-cropping.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1908