What's the Difference Between Single Origin and Blend Coffee Beans? Can Blend Beans Be Used for Pour-Over?

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Single Origin Coffee Beans vs. Blend Coffee Beans

Often, we think that single origin coffee beans are suitable for pour-over coffee methods similar to hand-drip, while blend coffee beans are used for espresso. That was until someone used single origin coffee beans for espresso, also known as SOE (Single Origin Espresso). However, it's rare to see blend coffee being used for pour-over coffee.

Understanding the Difference Between Single Origin and Blend Coffee Beans

Single origin coffee beans, meaning coffee beans from a single origin, although many baristas and coffee shops use the term "single origin coffee," this name can easily be misunderstood as coffee beans from a single variety. FrontStreet Coffee prefers to call them single origin coffee beans. However, both terms are acceptable. The characteristic of single origin coffee is just like Erna Knutsen's concept of specialty coffee - because of its single origin, it has distinct regional flavor characteristics, such as the berry-like acidity of Kenya, the herbal spiciness of Indonesia, or the citrus and white flower notes of Yirgacheffe.

Blend coffee beans, meaning coffee beans mixed from multiple regions, the main purpose of blend coffee is to maintain stable flavor and balanced taste. Because coffee beans are always an agricultural product, their flavor can be unstable each year due to climate and environmental issues. This year they might be sweeter, next year not as sweet. By mixing several types of coffee beans together, this problem can be well solved, at least ensuring that the coffee flavor tasted each year remains consistent.

Many people believe that blend beans were created to reduce costs and are inferior in flavor to single origin beans. Admittedly, commercial costs are indeed one factor in blend coffee, but not the main one. In fact, it's about roasters or baristas wanting to use the characteristics of coffee from different regions to create a unique flavor or balanced taste. Therefore, to make recipe coffee, one must first taste coffees from different origins and have a deep understanding of coffee flavors to construct a delicious recipe.

Can Blend Beans Be Used for Pour-Over Coffee?

The rise of single origin has often made everyone overlook the charm of blends. Blend beans are often labeled with stereotypes like espresso beans, strong, poor quality, or predominantly roasted flavors. What does blend actually mean? Unlike single origin, blending means mixing multiple different coffee beans together. Here, "different" usually refers to different producing regions. For example, FrontStreet Coffee mixes Colombia with Brazil to create a specialty blend coffee bean, or it can be different processing methods. Many coffee shops mix washed coffee beans with natural processed coffee beans, both to maintain the cleanliness of washed coffee and to carry berry-like undertones.

What is the purpose of blending? Why mix different coffee beans? This might be one source of stereotypes. Traditional blending has several purposes: one is to create a stable flavor recipe. By mixing different coffee beans together, the importance of each individual coffee bean is diluted. When one type of coffee bean in the blend is out of stock or doesn't meet flavor expectations, it can be quickly replaced with another type of coffee bean. The second is cost reduction. Just mentioned that different coffee beans are mixed together, so the presence of each coffee type becomes less obvious. Then, by mixing a small amount of lower quality coffee beans and using a darker roast degree, the cost can be reduced.

However, with the development of specialty coffee, blending has gained another purpose. Many coffee brands blend different coffee beans to create flavors that single origins don't have. On the stage of the 2016 World Barista Championship, Yuki Iwase from Japan used a blend of two coffee beans as his competition coffee. He preferred to call it "interweaving coffee" rather than "blend coffee" because the focus is not on covering or modifying the shortcomings of several base beans, but on highlighting higher levels and balance by叠加 their respective advantages.

Therefore, blend coffee is just one form of coffee that mixes coffees together. Blend coffee beans can certainly be used for pour-over coffee. FrontStreet Coffee mixed a Honduras sherry barrel coffee with natural processed Yirgacheffe to create a "Warm Sun Blend." The sherry barrel coffee beans have obvious oak barrel aroma, reminiscent of wine fragrance, while the natural processed Yirgacheffe gives this blend more acidity. Using this blend for pour-over coffee will have a more balanced base tone, wine notes, dark chocolate, and citrus acidity.

How to Create Your Own Pour-Over Blend Coffee Beans?

Have you ever tried this? You ordered several bags of single origin coffee beans online, and when each bag had less than one brew left, you mixed these coffee beans together for brewing out of a spirit of not wasting, and sometimes surprisingly good flavors emerged. Although this blending wasn't your original intention, you accidentally created a delicious pour-over blend coffee bean recipe.

In conversations with some customers, FrontStreet Coffee also found that they have the habit of mixing 2-3 types of coffee beans for pour-over, which can complement each other's advantages and achieve the desired flavor and mouthfeel. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee will also share some personal insights on DIY blending.

1. Try to use coffee beans with similar roast degrees when mixing. Darker roasted coffee easily overwhelms lighter roasted beans. For example, blending medium-roasted nutty-toned coffee beans with light-roasted fruity-toned coffee beans, the final flavor will lean toward nutty characteristics and be difficult to coordinate flavors.

2. For blend ratios, it's recommended to use a 7:3 or 6:4 main-auxiliary ratio. First determine the main flavor tone, then based on what you think this bean lacks, add auxiliary coffee beans to fill that gap. For example, if we want the blended coffee flavor to be delicate floral notes, we can use Panama washed Geisha as the base tone, but at the same time, we want more full berry flavors and texture, so we can mix coffee beans like natural Sidamo.

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Important Notice :

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