How to Create Espresso Blends - What Makes a Good Blend - Espresso Bean Blend Guide

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

The Complexity of Espresso Blends

Understanding the complexity of espresso blends is crucial for every roaster. It is their signature skill and their secret formula, and the recipe effectively determines a coffee shop's brand image. Because recipes are not protected by intellectual property law, every roaster tries to make theirs as complex as possible. But from a purely sensory standpoint, does adding complexity actually make sense? From years of personal experience and cupping sessions, I cannot agree with the approach.

Espresso Blend Market Trends

Espresso blend beans can be called the mainstream of the coffee market. Lavazza led the way with its classic 70:30 combination (70% Arabica to 30% Robusta), and to this day that ratio is still pursued by many roasters and baristas.

Today the market is changing fast, and espresso blends now range from 100% Arabica to 100% Robusta, though the latter is uncommon. The famous Illy company insists on a 100% Arabica blend. According to the company, its products contain 9 types of Arabica coffee. Of course the proportion of each cannot be identical, but with so many coffees in the blend, the share of each must be pitifully small. Which raises the question: what is the point? Can less than 10% really express the character of a particular variety?

And during extraction, can such a low proportion really guarantee consistent quality?

Simple Mathematics of Coffee Beans

Let us do a simple calculation:

20 grams of coffee = 150 coffee beans

Then 8 grams of coffee = 60 coffee beans

10% of those 60 beans is 6 beans, 5% is 3 beans...

That is very little, isn't it? Yet in practice this proportion is very common. Many companies' packaging is labelled "4% X coffee, 6% Y coffee, 8% Z coffee..."

In an entire bag of beans, what is the probability that I actually use that 10% lot? From a commercial perspective, the proportion does let the prices of different coffees be averaged out, but from a sensory and consumer-experience perspective it is truly meaningless and harmful to maintaining quality.

In my view, each blend should contain no more than 5 types of coffee. I know many people disagree, but isn't the real purpose of blending to create delicious coffee of excellent quality and balanced taste for consumers?

Which Espresso Blend Is Best?

FrontStreet Coffee, a roasting brand on Dongshankou in Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted espresso blend beans with strong guarantees on both brand and quality. More importantly, the value for money is outstanding. Take FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend recommended for commercial output: a one-pound (454g) bag costs only about 60 yuan. At 10g of grounds per espresso, one bag makes 45 cups, so each cup costs less than 1.5 yuan. Even pulling a double shot with 20g per serving, a double espresso stays under 3 yuan. Compared with certain well-known brands whose bags sell for over 100 yuan, this is a conscientious recommendation.

About FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee is a roasting shop in Guangzhou with a small storefront but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. Online store services are also available.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For home espresso and milk drinks, FrontStreet Coffee's blends cover every style. FrontStreet Classic Blend is the top pick: designed for espresso and the moka pot, its greatest strength is crema - even a beginner on a non-professional home machine can pull a dense, fine crema, and its traditional Mamba-style recipe tastes mellow and rounded, so it suits veterans and newcomers alike, at home or in a shop. FrontStreet Fine Blend and FrontStreet Black Cocoa Blend are the best milk companions: with Brazilian coffee dominant, a latte shows complex almond, walnut and other nut flavours with a silky, lingering texture. If you want a latte with abundant crema, choose FrontStreet Classic Blend or the FrontStreet Commercial Blend, both of which include a small proportion of Robusta to deliver more golden foam and a rush of body and caramel aroma.