Four Basic Principles of Blended Coffee Beans - The Biggest Difference Between Pour-Over Single-Origin Coffee Beans and Blended Coffee Beans

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

For more premium coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex

FrontStreet Coffee has its own perspective on coffee bean blending. Because FrontStreet Coffee offers a new-style blend called Sunflower Warm Sun Blend. This blended coffee bean uses premium coffee from two different origins, making it suitable for pour-over coffee. Creating a blended coffee bean might sound easy—just blend them together—but the resulting flavor profile must be distinctive enough to become a unique signature brand. The principles of blending, flavor characteristics, and selling points all need to be considered; otherwise, launching an ordinary blend would merely be self-indulgence. FrontStreet Coffee believes that good blended beans must have their own characteristics; otherwise, they will have no competitiveness in the industry.

What is Single-Origin Coffee?

Single-origin coffee refers to coffee produced from a specific origin, specific region, or specific plantation, carrying unique flavors that reflect the local terroir. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Queen Coffee, which comes from the Flower Queen coffee beans from the Guji Buku processing plant in Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, Ethiopia. During the procurement process for single-origin coffee, they can inspect the quality of each batch of green coffee beans. In fact, the definition of single-origin coffee is quite vague because there is no authoritative and clear international standard. The common standards for single-origin coffee include four categories: single region, single variety, single batch, and single processing method.

Some might ask: Are different varieties harvested from a single region considered single-origin coffee beans? FrontStreet Coffee can definitively tell you that they are single-origin coffee beans. For example, Ethiopian coffee varieties are extremely complex, and they are mostly mixed with different coffee varieties planted and harvested together, which is why Ethiopian coffee beans vary in size. Then, what about mixing beans from the same single region and single variety but processed using different methods? This is also considered single-origin coffee. FrontStreet Coffee recently acquired coffee beans from El Salvador's Chocolate Lover Estate. This bean uses Bourbon coffee from the same estate, with 50% washed processing and 50% black honey processing, aiming to express the chocolate flavor of the region. Because it comes from the same estate, this bean is a single-origin coffee bean.

What is Blended Coffee?

Blended coffee, also known as blend coffee, is the mixture of various single-origin coffee beans to fully leverage the strengths of each single-origin bean. Blended coffee beans are made from coffee beans mixed from different origins to create a more balanced flavor profile. For example, if one coffee bean is smooth but lacks aroma, another bean rich in aroma is added. By taking the advantages of individual coffee beans and complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses in terms of flavor—either complementing or enhancing—we create a new, richer taste experience. Sometimes the beans are mixed first and then roasted; this is called green blending. Sometimes the beans are roasted first and then mixed; this is called roasted blending. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters use medium-dark roasting to ensure the flavor stability of blended coffee.

Four Principles of Espresso Bean Blending

(1) FrontStreet Coffee's Purpose for Blended Coffee Beans:

1. Cost Reduction: Some coffee shops mix lower-quality coffee beans with higher-quality ones to reduce costs while increasing profit margins.

2. Stable Flavor: Because coffee beans are an agricultural product, even the same type of coffee bean will have different flavors each year. Mixing several types of coffee beans together solves this problem well, helping maintain basically consistent taste year after year.

3. Create Flavors That Single-Origin Beans Cannot Produce: Coffee beans from a single origin are like a person—both have strengths and weaknesses. Blending is like organizing a team, taking each one's strengths to compensate for others' weaknesses, achieving a complementary effect.

4. Balance Flavor: Espresso machines have a characteristic of amplifying the most prominent flavor characteristic of coffee beans. We almost never use single-variety coffee to make Espresso, because if that coffee bean is quite bitter, the resulting Espresso will be exceptionally bitter; if it leans toward acidity, it will be very acidic. Therefore, we need to balance various flavors through blending.

(2) Determine Target Flavor

Once we've determined the purpose, the next step is to identify the target flavor profile for the blended coffee beans. Only with clear objectives can we know where to start. This also greatly tests the blender's understanding of existing coffee beans and regional flavor characteristics. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Warm Sun Blend used for espresso production. When FrontStreet Coffee first created this blend, they wanted the espresso flavor to be unconventional and distinctive, desiring an espresso with wine-like aroma. Therefore, they used Sherry coffee beans from Honduras whiskey barrel fermentation to provide the wine aroma and natural-processed red cherries from Ethiopia to provide acidity and fermentation notes.

(3) Determine Blending Type

As mentioned above, there are green blending and roasted blending for coffee blends. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these two blending methods? FrontStreet Coffee believes the advantages of green blending include using the same roast degree to make the coffee more uniform and stable. Secondly, it reduces roasting times—one roasting session is sufficient, improving efficiency. The same roast degree also greatly reduces quality control difficulty (same roast means only one degassing date needs attention, whereas green blending can easily result in different roast dates for components, causing flavor differences). However, the disadvantages of green blending are also very obvious. Green blending has significant limitations; generally, green blending is more suitable for beans with similar densities. For example, mixing a bean suitable for light roasting with a bean suitable for dark roasting and roasting them to the same degree can easily result in 1+1

FrontStreet Coffee believes the advantage of roasted blending is that each bean can be roasted to its optimal degree, maximizing the characteristics of each bean. However, the disadvantage of roasted blending is that daily quality control and management become more difficult. Inconsistent roast dates require attention to more degassing periods. Imagine using 4-5 coffee beans for roasted blending—this product would require attention to 4-5 different roast dates. When FrontStreet Coffee roasts the Warm Sun Blend, they use the roasted blending method, separately roasting the Honduras Sherry barrel coffee beans and natural-processed Yirgacheffe red cherry plan to maximize the wine aroma of the sherry barrel beans while preserving as much as possible the fruity acidity and citrus-berry aroma of the other natural Yirgacheffe beans.

(4) Determine Blending Ratio

First is the flavor and quality of candidate coffee beans for blending. Before blending, it's essential to confirm whether the coffee quality meets standards and whether flavor differences exist. This step is very important for creating a premium-level coffee blend. Second is preliminary ratio confirmation. After extraction, coffee liquid is extracted and mixed according to different ratios, designing several different ratio schemes, and confirming the optimal range through cupping.

Final confirmation involves roasting the range values from preliminary confirmation according to the blending type determined in section three (green blending or roasted blending). Then direct tasting using the extraction method of the product positioning. For the FrontStreet Coffee Warm Sun Blend mentioned earlier, to highlight the wine aroma in espresso, the whiskey barrel Sherry coffee beans account for 60% in the blend, while the natural red cherries increase the coffee's smoothness, fermentation notes, and acidity, accounting for 40%.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Pour-Over Single-Origin Coffee Beans?

This time, FrontStreet Coffee uses natural-processed red cherries from Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia for brewing demonstration.

Region: Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia

Altitude: 1700-2200m

Processing: Natural processing

Variety: Ethiopian native varieties

To highlight the berry acidity, fermentation notes, and sweetness brought by natural processing, FrontStreet Coffee uses a V60 dripper to brew this coffee bean.

Ratio: 1:15

Grind size: Medium-fine grind (80% pass-through rate on #20 sieve)

Water temperature: 90-91°C

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, also called three-stage brewing: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour with small water flow in circles to 125g and segment, when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time is 1'55"-2'05".

Brewing flavors: Lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange, with overall high sweetness. The aftertaste has caramel and cream flavors, with a tea-like aroma in the finish.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Extract Espresso?

This time, FrontStreet Coffee uses Warm Sun Blend for espresso extraction demonstration.

Coffee dose: 19g

Espresso yield: 40g

Extraction time: 30 seconds

Grind size: Feima 900N #2

Flavors: Smooth texture, with distinct fruity acidity accompanied by subtle berry aroma on entry, whiskey wine fragrance and rich chocolate flavor, with a noticeable sweet aftertaste.

For more premium coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473