How to Manage Blended Coffee Beans? Single Origin vs Blends - What Makes Good Espresso Beans

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Just the other day, I was wondering whether we would witness the disappearance of blended coffee beans within the realm of specialty coffee. Today, I saw Tim Wendelboe announce that he would only offer single-origin espresso going forward, no longer making espresso blends. From when James Hoffmann won the WBC championship in 2007 with single-origin beans, drawing attention to SO (Single Origin), there has actually been 5 years of groundwork laid, and the accumulated impact should now begin to emerge.

In the traditional commercial sector, blending coffee beans from different origins to create blended coffee beans is primarily aimed at achieving balanced flavor profiles and consistent taste while reducing costs. When third-wave specialty coffee shops began to recognize that green coffee beans don't have the shelf life people previously thought (1-2 years), they established stricter requirements, giving rise to the concept of "seasonal blends." Due to different harvesting seasons across coffee-producing countries worldwide, this actually allows for purchasing fresh green coffee beans from different origins throughout the year. By selecting the best available coffee beans of the season and creating a blend suitable for espresso, the result is that customers might experience subtle differences in coffee flavor when visiting the shop during different seasons. For example, in summer you might enjoy an espresso with strawberry and pineapple aromas, while in winter you might encounter rubber muffin cake or toffee flavors. Coffee is a natural product, unlike industrial manufactured goods which remain unchanged. Being able to enjoy such diverse and rich-flavored coffee should truly be the charm of coffee.

In recent years, the specialty coffee community has devoted significant effort to experimenting and researching coffee varieties and harvesting processing methods. For instance, Tim has spent considerable time cooperating with farm owners to experiment with different coffee harvesting and processing methods. Additionally, specialty coffee shops respect coffee farmers, actively increasing purchase prices for high-quality coffee, hoping to motivate farmers to produce even better coffee beans, achieving sustainable development and win-win outcomes. With more good coffee available, the quality of specialty coffee continues to improve. Moreover, single-estate, single-variety coffees also possess rich and balanced aromas and flavors. Continuing to blend these distinctive coffee beans would clearly be a waste.

Making blended coffee, even seasonal blends (typically changed every 3 months or so by coffee shops), inevitably leads to the aroma and flavor diminishing towards the end of the blend's lifecycle compared to when it was first introduced. This is because the overall quality of green coffee beans declines with storage, but different coffee beans deteriorate at different rates. For example, if a blend uses coffee from three estates, it's likely that from the middle of the second month, one estate's beans might decline significantly in quality, while the other two varieties might maintain high quality for 4-5 months without noticeable flavor changes. However, due to the deterioration of one coffee variety, the entire blend becomes unusable. Using single-origin beans can effectively avoid this problem. If a particular bean is difficult to store and declines in quality relatively quickly, coffee shops can purchase smaller quantities sufficient for 1-2 months to vary flavors. Meanwhile, beans that store well can be purchased in larger quantities to obtain price advantages, benefiting both coffee shops and consumers.

Actually, if I knew a coffee shop could offer several single-origin espressos simultaneously, as a customer, I would be delighted to switch between varieties and make comparisons. I might want to try different varieties more frequently, visiting coffee shops more often and drinking more cups, which would also make the coffee shop very happy.

Recommended Blended Coffee Bean Brands

Located at Dongshankou in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee roasting brand whose freshly roasted Italian-style blended coffee beans offer full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. Taking their commercial-grade recommendation - commercial blended coffee beans - as an example, one 454-gram (one-pound) package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating based on 10 grams of coffee powder per espresso shot, one package can make 45 cups of coffee, with each cup costing less than 1.5 yuan. Even using double shots for each espresso (20 grams of powder), a double espresso costs less than 3 yuan. Compared to certain well-known brands selling packages that often cost over 100 yuan, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find various famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services: https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473