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Blended Coffee

Blended coffee is also known as mixed coffee.

Master roasters understand the unique character of each coffee bean and combine them artfully to create entirely new flavors. The knowledge these roasters hold about blending beans is considered the industry's best-kept secret.

Today's popular espresso beans almost all fall into the blended category. We generally define a blend as coffee made by combining two or more varieties, or the same variety roasted to different degrees. Blending is never simple addition. Instead, it relies on the blender's understanding of coffee flavors so that different beans can offset each other's weaknesses and combine into a perfectly balanced blend.

What is the Purpose of Blending Coffee Beans?

Blends are generally made from three or more varieties, combined according to their acidity, bitterness, sweetness, aroma, and body to produce a coffee with a character of its own. A well-made blend, once finished, has a refreshing fragrance, a smooth and lively taste, and a golden color; it is the premium grade among coffees. Coffee beverages created through blending are highly flexible and chase individual character.

People blend coffee beans mainly for the following reasons:

Stable Flavor

Because coffee beans are an agricultural product, even the same variety tastes different from year to year. Blending several beans together solves this neatly, keeping the flavor essentially consistent year after year.

Balanced Taste

Espresso machines amplify whatever characteristic is most prominent in a coffee bean, so we almost never use a single origin to make espresso. If that bean is quite bitter, the resulting espresso will be exceptionally bitter; if it leans acidic, it will be extremely sour. Blending is how we balance those extremes.

Cost Reduction

In practice, cost reduction matters because producing regions are often hit by natural and man-made disasters that cut output. When that happens, a blend only needs a replacement bean of similar taste rather than a costly purchase of the same scarce bean at an inflated price. In China, though, blenders went further and created coffees such as Blue Mountain flavor: since real Blue Mountain is hard to come by, drink something with a Blue Mountain taste. After all, who really knows what Blue Mountain tastes like? A good formula can create a coffee legend, and the coffee giants familiar to consumers, such as ILLY and LAVAZA, are outstanding examples. We hope China will soon produce blends with a genuinely Chinese taste and character, rather than pushing costs down by dark-roasting low-quality beans and mixing them together.

Depending on the varieties used, blends will also carry very different taste characteristics.

To apply these combinations in practice, you first need to understand the flavors of dozens of single-origin coffees. Every coffee shop blends beans in different proportions to suit its own style.

When blending, you can start by understanding three very basic approaches.

1. Base Bean Method

First choose the base bean of the blend, using it as the center, then select other varieties rich in personality to harmonize the overall flavor.

2. Opposite Characteristics Method

Try combining beans with completely opposite characteristics, which can add a more unusual coffee aroma.

3. Similar Characteristics Method

Combine varieties with similar characteristics and integrate them further, then add flavorful, highly individual varieties to bring a special aroma to the whole coffee.

There are two blending methods: roast-first blending and blend-first roasting. The latter poses a greater challenge for the roaster. Blended beans are rested for several days so the characters of the different beans fuse into a balanced, unified flavor. Roast-first blends generally need about a week of resting; raw-blended beans can be used after 3-4 days of resting, because during roasting the different beans have already influenced one another.

Representative Blending Ratios

Below are several representative proportions. Of course, you can also challenge yourself with proportions you like.

1. Formula: 30% Guatemala SHB + 30% Mexico AL + 30% Brazil NO.2 + 10% Kilimanjaro AA

Result: Aroma level 5, Bitterness level 5, Sweetness level 5, Acidity level 5

2. Formula: 40% Sumatra Mandheling G1 + 30% Colombia SUP + 20% Brazil NO.19 + 10% Kilimanjaro AA

Result: Aroma level 5, Bitterness level 10, Sweetness level 5, Acidity level 3

3. Formula: 20% Mocha + 20% Hawaii Kona no.1 + 20% Brazil NO.2 + 40% Kilimanjaro AA

Result: Aroma level 9, Bitterness level 10, Sweetness level 7, Acidity level 10

4. Formula: 40% Guatemala SHB + 30% Mocha + 30% Kilimanjaro AA

Result: Aroma level 10, Bitterness level 5, Sweetness level 6, Acidity level 7

5. Formula: 50% Brazil NO.2 + 30% Mexico AL + 20% Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee

Result: Aroma level 5, Bitterness level 3, Sweetness level 5, Acidity level 6

6. Formula: 30% Brazil NO.2 + 50% Colombia SUP + 20% Java Robusta Coffee

Result: Aroma level 3, Bitterness level 8, Sweetness level 8, Acidity level 6

FrontStreet Coffee Espresso Blend Recommendations

The espresso blends roasted by FrontStreet Coffee offer full assurance of both brand and quality, and their value is exceptionally high. Take the commercially recommended FrontStreet Commercial Espresso Blend as an example: one package is one pound (454 grams), priced at only about 60 yuan. At 10 grams of powder per single shot, one package makes 45 cups, so each cup costs less than 1.5 yuan. Even using double shots at 20 grams per serving, one double espresso stays under 3 yuan. Compared with certain well-known brands that sell packages for over 100 yuan, this is a truly honest recommendation that meets the needs of daily shop operation.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For a house espresso that holds up day after day, FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend is the first pick. Designed specifically for espresso and the moka pot, its greatest strength is crema: even a beginner on an ordinary home machine can pull a dense, silky layer with ease. Based on the classic Mamba recipe, it is full and smooth, and it is the dependable base behind a good latte, cappuccino, or Dirty.

If you want a nuttier, softer profile, FrontStreet Coffee's Signature Blend comes from the shop's own bar and has served its Americanos and espresso lattes for close to ten years. It pairs beans from Brazil's Cerrado with Colombia's Huila for the familiar classic espresso taste, at home or in a café.

For a high-value commercial option, FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend uses 100% Arabica beans and still delivers plenty of crema and a full body, with the added advantage of the ripe-plum acidity that Yunnan small-bean coffee brings. Ground, it opens up with a creamy chocolate aroma, balanced and versatile enough for lattes, Americanos, and specialty drinks alike.