What Are Blend Coffees Suitable for Coffee Shops? Definition and Benefits of Coffee Blends

What Are Coffee Blends?

Coffee blends — also called formula beans, mixed beans, or blended coffee — are known in English simply as "blend coffee." The idea is defined in contrast to single-origin coffee. The distinction is straightforward:

Single-origin coffee: every bean in a given package comes from the same producing region.

Blended coffee: a single package contains beans from two or more different producing regions.

What Exactly Is a Blended Coffee Bean?

Let's take a simple example.

1. Ethiopian Yirgacheffe Worka: this product name refers to beans produced by the Worka Cooperative within the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. Every bean comes from Worka, so it is unmistakably a single-origin coffee. When brewed, you can taste the distinctive character of Yirgacheffe Worka in full.

2. Red Velvet: a product name like this, which names neither a country nor a producing region, is usually a blend. Shops tend to follow no particular rules when naming blends — most prefer a beautiful-sounding name built around the coffee's flavor and character. Some simply use experimental numbers; others land on names that are frankly incomprehensible. It really comes down to the shop's taste. Fortunately, most shops will state plainly that these are blended beans, and some will even list which single origins went into the blend.

The definition of a blended coffee is extremely simple, but as specialty coffee has grown more refined, some variations on that definition have appeared.

Consider three different Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffees: Flora, Alimu, and Worka. By definition, any blend containing two or more different producing regions is a blended coffee. Yet all three are produced in Ethiopian Yirgacheffe, just at different estates. So should this be called Ethiopian Yirgacheffe single-origin coffee, or Ethiopian Yirgacheffe blended coffee?

Defining Blended Coffee Beans

Generally speaking, it is still called a blended coffee. After all, when the formula was developed, the three Yirgacheffe coffees were treated as independent works with distinct flavors, then mixed and roasted in different proportions to layer different tastes. Calling it a blend is therefore the more appropriate choice.

Purposes of Creating Coffee Blends

Blended coffees are typically formulated for one of four purposes.

1. Specifically for Espresso-based Drinks

In specialty coffee today, espresso-based drinks still dominate the market. Espresso almost always calls for the addition of dairy, and single origins that are overly acidic or thin-bodied are less suited to mixing with milk.

For this reason, specialty coffee shops usually develop dedicated blends for their espresso drinks. Common traits include: more crema, higher sweetness, an emphasis on the finish (chocolate, honey, nuts, and so on), and a balanced profile without especially prominent acidity. These are what we commonly call "espresso beans."

Of course, that is only a general assumption. How espresso beans express themselves varies enormously depending on the flavor profile a given shop wants to interpret. Here are two unusual examples:

♥ Espresso beans that lean hard into crema — so rich it would startle an ordinary drinker — yet with an unmistakable bitter-chocolate finish for an adult flavor profile.

♥ Espresso beans that don't chase crema, using a light texture to strike a subtle balance in which sweet-and-sour fruit notes harmonize with milk.

From these two examples you can see just how widely espresso beans vary, and achieving the ideal flavor through roasting is a severe test of a shop's understanding and combination of flavors. Judging the quality of espresso beans is therefore one of the standards many people use to evaluate a coffee shop. That said, I would suggest not being too critical — savor, appreciate, and imagine other people's espresso beans instead; that will serve you better.

2. Suitable for Long-term Supply

This point also relates to espresso. Coffee shops generally hold strict proportions for every ingredient in their espresso drinks to keep cup quality consistent. Coffee beans have the greatest impact and are also the most troublesome ingredient — especially when single origins are used for espresso. You often run into a single origin going out of stock, and switching temporarily to another single origin brings the headache of having to recalibrate the whole formula.

To keep a long-term, stable supply of espresso beans, then, it helps to build the formula from high-volume regional coffees (which need not be estate lots). That way you avoid the problem of one particular coffee running out.

What's more, because the base is a blend to begin with, if one component develops quality issues you can quickly correct it with a similar coffee. Since its share is smaller, the substitution preserves flavor consistency far better. With a single origin, the character is obvious and accounts for 100% of the cup — swap it and everything changes.

3. Simulating Special Flavors

This purpose is generally uncommon in specialty coffee shops. Most commercial coffees use blends for flavor correction, imitating certain famous brand-name coffees.

The most common examples are so-called "Blue Mountain flavor," "Kopi Luwak flavor," and "Gukeng flavor" coffees. These products, named for a flavor, often contain no Blue Mountain beans at all — they simply use other coffees to imitate the imagined taste of Blue Mountain. They may, of course, include a small amount of coffee from the original region. For instance, Gukeng coffee sold on the market often contains less than 10% actual Gukeng beans, with large quantities of beans from elsewhere used as substitutes.

If you could genuinely create Blue Mountain flavor from cheaper beans, that would be impressive. In general, though, commercial coffees use such names mainly to piggyback on the fame of brand-name coffees and attract consumer attention. In my experience, they have nothing to do with the true flavor of Blue Mountain.

Moreover, famous names like Blue Mountain, Kopi Luwak, and Gukeng are no longer mainstream in today's specialty coffee market — they may not even fall within the specialty coffee category. They are largely commercial hype, and fakes abound. Unless you are truly confident, there is no need to spend big money on them.

Personally, I believe even real Blue Mountain is not necessarily better than estate coffee — the value for money is simply too low. Not to mention the commercial beans that imitate Blue Mountain flavor, which are generally neither fish nor fowl.

4. Challenging Flavor Compositions

If a specialty coffee shop has the capability to formulate blends, it will sometimes create several different flavored blends to make the shop's drinks more varied in taste.

For example: some shops, besides the blend used for espresso, will specially formulate a blend meant for drinking espresso straight. This one may not emphasize crema or balance the way an espresso bean does, but instead challenge bold fruit acidity, a refreshing tea-like sensation, and citrus notes, so that consumers who love straight espresso can indulge. Beyond beans for straight espresso, there are also beans designed for siphon, pour-over, cold drip, moka pot, and drip bag brewing.

For most specialty coffee shops that develop blends, the main focus is perhaps not targeting a specific brewing device. The key is to challenge their own imagination of flavor and their roasting skill, letting consumers brew black coffee from a house-formulated blend as well as from single origins — and taste a unique creation developed with the shop's own ingenuity.

FrontStreet Coffee is a small Guangzhou roastery with a surprisingly diverse range of beans, carrying both famous and lesser-known lots, and it also sells online.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you are building or refining a blend, a bright, clean single origin makes an excellent component to layer against a sweeter or heavier base. FrontStreet Coffee's flagship washed Yirgacheffe is a classic reference point: it is grown in the Yirgacheffe area of southern Ethiopia at roughly 1,700–2,100 meters, with the trees planted above 1,800 meters, and it is known for white jasmine, bright citrus and lemon acidity, and a tea-like body. FrontStreet also offers a washed Gudingding Cooperative lot from the Worka area, with citrus, lemon and jasmine, and a sun-dried Red Cherry lot that brings berry juice, honeyed sweetness and a creamy texture. For anyone experimenting at home, the washed Yirgacheffe is the affordable, forgiving "daily drinker" that makes a natural counterpoint inside a blend. A simple starting recipe is a V60 dripper, 15 g of coffee at a 1:15 ratio, 90–91°C water, and a grind around fine-sugar size.