What Does Coffee Bean Blending Mean? What's the Difference Between Espresso Blends and Single-Origin Coffee Beans? Should Blending Be Done with Green or Roasted Beans?

Understanding Coffee Blends

"Coffee blends" refer to beans created by combining two or more single-origin coffee beans from different regions, growing areas, or processing methods. Initially, people blended coffee beans to reduce costs and dilute the importance of each bean to maintain consistent flavor. However, as times have evolved, coffee blending has also emerged to enhance coffee quality, which has become the most popular approach today.

In the article "Why Are Blended Beans Being Used for Pour-Over Coffee?" FrontStreet Coffee mentioned that single-origin coffees rarely excel in both flavor and texture simultaneously. This is why more people are using blended beans for pour-over coffee. Through blending, we can create beans that excel in taste, texture, and overall performance while showcasing uniqueness—why not embrace this approach?

However, because there are two methods for blending coffee beans—"raw blending" and "roasted blending"—friends often ask: Should coffee blends be made using raw blending or roasted blending?

Raw Blending vs. Roasted Blending

Should coffee blends be made using raw or roasted blending? Raw blending refers to mixing coffee beans in proportion before roasting, then placing them together in the roaster. Because the coffee beans are in their raw state during blending, people call this "raw blending."

After understanding raw blending, roasted blending becomes straightforward. Roasted blending means roasting the coffee beans separately, then mixing them in proportion after they've been roasted. Because roasted beans are used for blending, people call this "roasted blending."

Advantages and Challenges of Each Method

Although the difference between the two methods may seem to lie only in the sequence of blending, in reality, their essential nature differs significantly. The advantage of raw blending is that when roasting small quantities, one batch can complete the roasting of all target coffee beans, while roasted blending requires multiple roasting batches according to the number of coffee beans in the blend. For example, if you use two types of beans for blending, you'll need to roast two batches; if three types, then three batches. In comparison, raw blending that gets done in one batch not only saves gas and electricity costs but also saves the roaster significant time. However, even so, not all blending formulas are suitable for raw blending. The reason is quite simple—because it's unstable!

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned at the beginning, blending coffee requires using beans from different regions or with different processing methods. These coffee beans differ in moisture content, density, and particle size. We all know that in cooking, different ingredients require different heat levels—coffee bean roasting is no different. Different bean characteristics correspond to different roasting methods. If several beans with significant differences in size, density, or moisture content are blended and roasted together, the roasting difficulty becomes considerable. The lighter the roast degree, the more challenging the roasting process. For beginners, this might lead to two extreme situations: smaller/lower density/lower moisture content beans might get scorched, or larger/higher moisture content/higher density beans might end up under-roasted.

Blends roasted this way not only lack consistency in flavor but also experience different extraction efficiencies. Lighter roasted beans aren't as easily extracted, while darker roasted beans more readily dissolve substances. When applying such beans to formal extraction, uneven extraction is likely to occur. This is where roasted blending can solve this problem. We only need to roast the several coffee beans needed for blending separately, design different roasting curves according to their respective characteristics to achieve consistent roast degrees, and finally blend them—this can reduce errors between them.

Conclusion

However, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, the disadvantage is that when roasting small quantities, multiple batches are needed, increasing costs in various aspects. At the same time, if you want all coffee beans to achieve nearly identical roast degrees, the roaster needs considerable experience, otherwise it will significantly increase trial-and-error costs. All of FrontStreet Coffee's blends use roasted blending, continuously adjusting the roast degree and blending ratio of each bean after formulating the blend recipe to achieve satisfactory results. Therefore, both raw and roasted blending have their advantages—we can appropriately choose blending methods based on circumstances, without being too rigid about any particular form. For those interested in blending, you can check out this detailed article "How Should Coffee Beans Be Blended?"

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