How to Blend Coffee Beans - Are Blends Good - Do Blended Coffee Beans Need Aging

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Understanding Coffee Blends

First, let's understand what coffee blending is.

As the name suggests, blending refers to combining two or more single-origin coffee beans. However, it can also involve blending the same variety of coffee beans at different roast levels, or even combining new crop with aged coffee or old crop of the same coffee variety. Therefore, the "varieties" mentioned in blending are no longer narrowly defined coffee species but have been broadly extended to coffee flavors. Blending typically uses 2-6 types of coffee beans, as too many varieties may fail to showcase the unique flavors of the coffee.

Coffee blends generally do not use a 1:1 ratio, as this might suppress each other's characteristic flavors. Therefore, blending should have a primary and secondary distinction to create a more wonderful taste than single-origin coffee. If you want the blended coffee to have complex and varied flavors, you can reduce the proportion of the primary beans, and vice versa.

Coffee blending relies on continuous tasting and cupping. Before blending, you should adopt a combinatorial approach mathematically to draft a blending plan, then determine the best solution through the process of blending and cupping.

Don't think this is something that hasn't kept up with the times or lacks technological support. In fact, only through the blender's experience, inspiration, and such tireless experimentation can a good cup of coffee be blended.

Why Blend Coffee?

Although some fixed varieties of coffee can be consumed directly as single-origin coffee, most coffees have more or less flavor defects. For example: lacking special flavors, insufficient depth, inadequate intensity, or certain flavors being too strong. To compensate for these shortcomings, several types of coffee beans with different characteristics are blended to create a harmonious and deep flavor. Besides flavor considerations, there are also business considerations, such as creating a brand.

In 1870, Joel, a grocery store salesman from Kentucky and the founder of Maxwell House, felt that the coffee available at that time couldn't meet his requirements, so he began experimenting with blending different coffee beans. When he developed a blend that satisfied him, he took it to the prestigious Maxwell House Hotel in the capital of Tennessee. This was a hotel characterized by the traditional Southern hospitality of the United States. Soon, Joel's blended coffee, with its unique aroma and richness, became the most popular product at Maxwell House Hotel, and the coffee roasting plant there became the largest in the United States. Maxwell House Hotel thus gave its elegant and unique name to Joel's blended coffee.

Highlighting good flavors while hiding undesirable ones is also a purpose of blending. Want a more balanced coffee? Want a cup with medium acidity, excellent body, berry aroma, and great crema? Blending is definitely a shortcut. For commercial operations, such single-origin coffees are expensive and difficult to find.

Pleasing names can significantly enhance a coffee blend, making it easier to create selling points. Examples of successful blends include "Black Cat" by "Intelligentsia" and "Hair Bender" by "Stumptown."

How to Blend Coffee?

Coffee blending is not simply mixing coffee beans together. Sometimes, blending two specialty coffees may suppress each other's characteristic flavors. Blending is also not just combining several specialty coffees; blending is like an artist mixing captivating colors on a palette. There's a misconception of immediately asking for the secret recipe of a blend - in reality, there is no secret recipe. The secret of coffee blending is not like Coca-Cola's recipe locked in a bank vault. Blending is about selecting beans based on flavor. Green buyers, roasters, and blenders work together to create a popular blend - none can be missing.

First, green coffee buyers must purchase green beans for the company at appropriate prices and with the required flavors, so they are constantly cupping to find those flavors, such as:

Acidity: Mocha, Hawaiian Kona, Kenya, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica SHB, Kilimanjaro, Colombia, El Salvador, high-quality washed new beans from the Western Hemisphere, etc.

Bitterness: Java, Mandheling, Bogota, Congo, Uganda, etc.

Sweetness: Colombia, Venezuela (aged coffee), Blue Mountain, Kilimanjaro, Mocha, Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, Brazil Santos, Haiti, etc.

Body: Colombia, Mocha, Blue Mountain, Guatemala, Costa Rica, etc.

Neutral: Brazil, El Salvador, low-altitude Costa Rica, Venezuela, Honduras, Cuba, etc.

The above acidity, bitterness, sweetness, body, and neutral characteristics are for reference only, as too many factors influence flavor expression (variety, altitude, sunlight, moisture, fertilizer, shade trees, etc.).

Roasters experiment with roasting to find the best flavor of each bean through cupping. Blenders use their experience to blend and then test to find the flavors that customers want.

Recommended Coffee Blend Brands

FrontStreet Coffee, a coffee roasting brand located at Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, offers freshly roasted espresso blend coffee beans with full guarantees in terms of brand and quality. More importantly, it offers extremely high value for money. Taking the commercial recommendation - commercial blend coffee beans as an example, one 454-gram package costs only about 60 yuan. Calculating with 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 if each espresso serving uses a double shot with 20 grams of powder, a double espresso costs no more than 3 yuan. Compared to some well-known brands that sell packages for hundreds of 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, while also providing 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