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Research on Espresso Blends: Why Blend? The Relationship Between Flavor and Espresso Blend Formulas

Published: 2026-07-08 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/07/08, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). The art of blended coffee beans, sharing espresso blend formulas. What are espresso blends? Many people love drinking lattes, and I'm no exception. Before being introduced to specialty coffee, I had always only loved drinking

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For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

FrontStreet Coffee · The Art of Blend Coffee Beans - Espresso Blend Coffee Bean Formula Sharing

What are espresso blend beans?

Many people love drinking lattes, and I'm no exception. Before I was introduced to specialty coffee, I only loved drinking lattes and only knew that lattes are espresso mixed with milk. I didn't know that espresso is made from several types of coffee beans blended together. The key to a good latte is the espresso coffee bean formula. How to create a delicious espresso blend involves significant expertise!

Why blend beans?

1. To create a distinctive coffee single origin by combining different beans with various roast levels according to different proportions.

2. To balance costs.

3. To create espresso formulas.

Blending Theory:

I generally categorize coffee beans into 3 types: white, gray, and black. White beans mainly provide fragrance and acidity in the front taste, gray beans mainly provide sweet base notes, and black beans mainly provide bitterness in the aftertaste. Then I configure them according to the characteristics of different beans and suitable roast levels. The suitable ratio is 3:5:2. Some beans might fall between white-gray or gray-black categories, and experimentation is needed to find the best classification position to achieve the most perfect blend.

White (front-end fragrance and acidity) Light roast - Kenya, Guatemala, Yirgacheffe...

Gray (mid-range body and sweetness) Medium-dark roast - Brazil, Costa Rica honey process, El Salvador...

Black (back-end bitterness and aftertaste) Dark roast - Mandheling, Kenya, Guatemala...

Gray-black - Colombia (medium-dark roast) - trending toward bitter aftertaste.

Espresso formulas mainly emphasize sweetness, and sweetness pairs well with milk. A little white + more gray + medium black can be tried: Guatemala + Brazil + Kenya.

You can first categorize the coffee beans by their front-end aroma, mid-range body, or back-end aftertaste sweetness, then blend and taste them one by one.

Espresso Blend Reference Solutions:

1. Kenya AA (medium roast) + Mandheling G1 (medium-dark) + Guatemala Antigua - Flora de Oro (extremely light roast) - Has sweetness, body, and subtle floral aroma, with good texture and delicious taste. Some people feedback that the coffee flavor isn't strong enough.

2. Kenya AA (medium roast) + Mandheling G1 (medium-dark) + Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (washed) (light roast) - Sufficient sweetness, heavier body, subtle floral and fruit acidity notes, delicious taste. The coffee flavor is still not strong enough.

FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou China, selling freshly roasted beans from its own farm in Yunnan as well as dozens of carefully selected single-origin beans from around the world for both pour-over and espresso. The products deliver consistently excellent quality and great value, with shipping within 24 hours. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers, and the beans are now available online at the Tmall 。