Can Coffee Blends Be Used for Cold Brew? What's the Ideal Ratio for Cold Brew Coffee Recipes?

On a scorching summer day, a refreshing iced coffee cools you down and perks you up! But have you ever tried making cold brew with a blend — two or more beans mixed together?

Today, FrontStreet Coffee opens up a new world of cold brew coffee beans for you~

Characteristics of Cold Brew Coffee

The biggest difference between cold brew and hot coffee lies in the extraction. Cold brew uses cold water over a long period, drawing out more water-soluble flavor compounds for a richer taste and fuller body. Floral notes and other small-molecule compounds fade over time. (That's why freshly extracted, freshly filtered cold brew has distinct floral and fruity acidity — but after two or three days of storage, only fermented, wine-like aromas remain.)

Why Use "Blended" Coffee Beans?

Compared with single-origin coffee, a "blend" mixes "two or more" beans together. The rise of single-origin coffee has made people overlook the charm of blending. From a commercial standpoint, blends serve several purposes: they create stable flavor profiles, they achieve more compatible flavor combinations, and they reduce costs.

Blends may be most common in espresso, but they're not confined to it — they work just as well for pour-over, siphon, cold drip, and other brewing methods.

Setting commerce aside and brewing simply as a refreshing homemade drink, the purpose of blending for cold brew is simple: deliciousness. Different beans are used to leverage and combine the strengths of each, ultimately producing a cup whose flavors are richer and more harmonious.

Creating a blend requires first tasting coffees from different origins and understanding their flavors deeply enough to design a delicious recipe. With that in mind, FrontStreet Coffee shares some of its own experiences and thoughts on DIY blended cold brew beans for your reference.

Experiment One: 50% Sidra (Anaerobic Natural) + 50% Morito (Washed)

The anaerobic natural Sidra carries rich berry notes and, in cold brew, a subtle fermented wine aroma. The washed Morito Geisha contributes jasmine florals with a slight tea-like quality. Together they made the floral and fruity acidity fuller and more layered. The catch: the Sidra proportion was too high — you could only catch Morito's florals right after extraction, while Sidra's dense berry notes dominated.

Experiment Two: 50% Bahia (Raisin Honey) + 50% Red Cherry (Washed)

The raisin honey Bahia brings dark berry notes, strong fermented wine aromas, and smooth cocoa in cold brew. Blending in 50% washed Red Cherry tempered the heavy fermentation and introduced gentle citrus acidity, making the coffee more refreshing and easier to drink — overall, just right.

Experiment Three: 45% Lychee Orchid (Barrel Fermented) + 55% Natural Red Cherry

Learning from the first experiment, FrontStreet Coffee scaled back the special-process bean, hoping to gain more floral and fruity notes on top of the rich wine base. The result was disappointing: the cold brew brimmed with brandy-like aroma, but the florals and fruit never showed up. Still delicious — just not the 1+1>2 effect we wanted.

Experiment Four: 50% Strawberry Candy (Raisin Honey) + 50% Guji (Natural)

This one was special. Strawberry Candy on its own already smells of strawberry candy in cold brew. After adding natural Guji at 1:1, it gained a green-tea-like aftertaste beneath the strawberry flavors, along with some dark floral acidity. It drank like strawberry floral tea with a long, wine-like finish.

Experiment Five: 60% Wangshan Estate Geisha (Black Honey) + 40% Guji (Natural)

Cold brewed alone, Wangshan Geisha shows light jasmine florals and tastes like pineapple juice — but the body is thin and the aftertaste short. Adding natural Guji brought a green-tea-like aftertaste, shifted the profile from pineapple toward dark fruits like grapes and berries, and added slight fermented wine aromas with a long finish.

After several rounds with medium-light roasts, FrontStreet Coffee wondered: must cold brew be medium-light? Could a delicious blend be built on dark roast beans? So FrontStreet used deeply roasted Brazil Queen Estate as the base, supplemented with medium-light Flora God, and ran the following experiment:

Experiment Six: 40% Flora God (Medium Roast, Washed) + 60% Queen Estate (Dark Roast, Natural)

The Queen Estate beans are roasted dark, leaning toward nutty, cocoa, and dark chocolate bitterness. To balance the excessive bitterness in cold brew, FrontStreet Coffee added medium-light washed Flora God, hoping for some floral and fruity acidity on top of the nutty dark-chocolate base. The result: an overwhelming peanut-skin taste with hints of dark chocolate and nuts — painful masks all around for the FrontStreet baristas. 🤡

These are just a few experiments FrontStreet Coffee's baristas tried based on their daily cold brew work, attempting to "blend" more distinctive recipes. Some turned out surprisingly delicious; others left everyone wincing. But that, too, is part of the charm of blending. We hope you'll create your own signature recipes~

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10, Bao'an Front Street, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Beans Made for Cold Brew

Cold brew amplifies floral and fruity tones while muting woody and roasted notes, so light-to-medium roasts are the natural choice. For vivid florals in your iced coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's natural Hua Kui from Ethiopia — coffee's birthplace — is the one to buy: dried in the fruit, the beans absorb abundant sweetness, showing magnolia, creamy strawberry, dried mango, guava, and black tea in cold brew. For a juice-like cup, the Kenya Cherry Tomato is the pick: cherry tomato, snow pear, black plum, and dried dark plum acidity unfold fully under cold extraction, with low bitterness and refreshing iced finish, from SL28 and SL34 varieties processed with Kenya's signature K72 double-wash fermentation.

Great Value Blends for Cold Brew

Cold brew generally consumes more coffee than pour-over, so value matters. A smart move is blending: many people love FrontStreet Coffee's Colombia Sidra for its passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried-fruit sweetness but find it pricey — so blend it 1:2 with FrontStreet Costa Rica Tarrazu, keeping the Sidra florals plus the Tarrazu's crisp citrus acidity while lifting the value. Another budget-friendly star is the washed Yirgacheffe Worka Cooperative: clean, bright sweet-sour character, versatile across pour-over, siphon, French press, and cold brew, and in cold brew it shows remarkably sweet berry, layered, and honeyed flavors.

The Dedicated Cold Brew Blend

Finally, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy Geisha blend was practically made for cold brew: Panama Geisha contributes delicate rose and orange notes while the Costa Rica honey process brings grape, dried blueberry, and strawberry-soft-candy sweetness — a lively, sweet-tart, layered cold brew that, if left to settle and mature a little, even takes on a fruit-wine character.