Many friends don't understand how blended beans are formulated. Now Front Street Coffee will guide everyone through the ideas behind coffee bean blending and how to blend coffee.
Reasons and Purposes for Blending
People blend coffees from different origins for several different purposes. The most ideal purpose is, of course, to blend a coffee that tastes better than any of the individual components. However, generally speaking, single-origin Arabica coffee is enough to produce a very good cup of coffee: a fresh aroma, a smooth body, and a sweet aftertaste. So there is no need to "blend"(that is, combining beans from different origins).
The main commercial purpose of blending coffee beans is to reduce costs, using several different coffees to create a blend that is higher in quality than others at the same price point. Another purpose is to create a unique flavor, so that customers who like this flavor have no choice but to buy from this one producer and cannot get it from other suppliers. Another benefit of doing this is that no matter how the flavors of certain origins change from year to year, the flavor of this blend will not change accordingly.
Before blending any coffee, Front Street believes that you must first understand the flavor characteristics of various coffees, and at the very least be clear in your mind that the flavor you want to create through blending is one that no single-origin coffee can achieve. If the blended coffee does not taste better than one or several of its components, wouldn't that be a great pity? You might as well not blend at all. If you use coffees of fairly good quality for blending, the result is likely to be just that.
Although some fixed-variety coffees can be consumed directly as single-origin coffee, most coffees have more or less certain shortcomings, such as insufficiently prominent flavor, lack of depth, not enough body, or some flavor that is too intense. To compensate for these shortcomings, several coffee beans with different characteristics must be blended together to create a harmonious and deep flavor. Some people believe that the pleasure of coffee is concentrated in the two stages of roasting and blending, while drinking coffee is merely enjoying the fruits of one's own victory. Blending coffee is not simply mixing coffee beans together casually.
Sometimes blending two single-origin coffees can actually suppress each other's distinctive flavors, so blending is not simply putting several single-origin coffees together. Blending is like a painter mixing enchanting colors on a palette; a blender can likewise use coffee beans to mix an alluring flavor. So it is not an exaggeration to say that blending is an art. As an artist, one needs not only experience and inspiration, but also a certain amount of scientific calculation. A general blended coffee need not use more than five kinds of coffee beans. Because if there are too many types of coffee beans, the situation can become very complicated.
Front Street Coffee focuses on freshly roasted coffee, and also offers different categories of blended coffee for different customer needs. For example, for customers seeking value for money, Front Street recommends the Front Street Black Cocoa Blend, an all-Arabica espresso bean blend of Brazil and Yunnan, which has a price advantage and outstanding flavor. Front Street also offers the Sunflower · Warm Sun Blend for customers who pursue flavor. This is a product blended from Yirgacheffe sun-dried Red Cherry and Honduras Sherry. Because it has an ultimate liqueur chocolate flavor, it is deeply loved by many customers.
Should you roast first and then blend, or blend first and then roast? Which method is better?
Front Street Coffee believes that if you have a definite recipe, then of course the simplest method is to first blend the different coffee beans together, and then roast them together. But if you are trying and comparing different blend components and corresponding ratios, then of course you want to first roast the various coffee beans, and then conduct various trials. Otherwise, every time you change the blend components and ratios, you need to roast again.
In the roasting field, blending first and then roasting is generally called "green blending," while roasting first and then blending is called "roasted blending." Actually, neither method is superior or inferior to the other. The advantage of green blending is that roasting the same batch of beans together will make the roast degree of the whole batch more consistent and the flavor more stable, but when selecting beans, you should choose beans with similar screen sizes for mixing, otherwise the roast may very likely be uneven. The other method, roasted blending, allows you to master the optimal roasting attributes of each coffee bean, and then mix them to make up for each other's shortcomings.
Generally, all coffee beans can be roasted together. Only when the roasting result is not very ideal should you consider using the method of roasting separately. In this case, separate roasting can usually achieve relatively good results. Especially for drum roasters, a relatively moderate roast level can generally be found.
Before blending coffee beans, we should be clear about the following points:
1. What kind of flavor do we hope to obtain through blending, that is, determine the goal of the blend.
2. Understand the characteristics of each coffee bean. To blend coffee, you must first be thoroughly familiar with the characteristics of each single-origin coffee and understand the subtle relationship between roast degree and coffee flavor, and all of this can only be achieved through cupping.
3. Determine the role that each coffee bean participating in the blend should play.Since multiple coffee beans are used in the blend, you must be clear about the role of each coffee bean, whether it is to highlight a soft bitterness, a bright acidity, or a heavy body, and so on.
When blending, the following principles should generally be followed:
1. The original beans used for blending should preferably be coffee beans with distinct characteristics, while avoiding coffee beans with similar flavors. When selecting original beans, you can consider three aspects:
Green bean processing method: that is, whether the green beans are processed by the washed method or the sun-dried method. The processing method has a great relationship with coffee bean flavor.
Green bean origin: Coffee origins are generally divided into three major regions, including Central and South America, namely about 20 countries such as Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Peru; Southeast Asia, namely about 10 countries such as India, Indonesia (including islands such as Java and Sumatra), and Papua New Guinea; and Arabia and Africa, namely about 25 countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Arabia, and Uganda. At present, on the marketthe most commonly used original beans are Brazil and Colombia.
2. The number and ratio of coffee bean types participating in the blend
Since it is a blend, it naturally refers to the blending of two or more original beans, but coffee beans of the same type roasted to different degrees can also be blended together, and new crop and aged coffee or old crop of the same coffee bean can even be blended together. Therefore, the "types" referred to in blending are no longer coffee varieties in the narrow sense, but have extended in a broad sense to coffee flavors.
When blending, 2 to 6 kinds of coffee beans are generally used, because too many types make it difficult to express the unique flavor of coffee. Blended coffee generally does not adopt a 1:1 blending ratio, as this may suppress each other's distinctive flavor tonality. Therefore, when blending, there must be a distinction between primary and secondary components in order to create a more wonderful taste than single-origin coffee. If you want the blended coffee to have a complex and varied taste, you can reduce the proportion of the theme original bean, and vice versa.
3. Blended coffee relies on constant experimentation
Before blending, you should use a mathematical combination approach to draft a blending plan table, and then determine the best solution through the process of blending and cupping.Do not think that this is a passive and clumsy method. In fact, only by relying on the blender's experience, inspiration, and such tireless experimentation can a good cup of coffee be blended.
Front Street Coffee offers 4 distinctive blended coffee beans according to different requirements:
[Sunflower Warm Sun Espresso Coffee Beans]Honduras Sherry : Yirgacheffe sun-dried Red Cherry, ratio 7:3, roasted blending;
Flavor characteristics: obvious fruity acidity, a faint berry aroma lingering, rich wine aroma and chocolate flavor, and a comfortable sweet aftertaste.
The Sherry coffee beans bring this coffee a rich whisky aroma and the lingering finish of liqueur chocolate, with a rich fragrance. The sun-dried Red Cherry brings this coffee a fermented feel and berry aroma, and it is smooth on entry. Because this Warm Sun blend coffee bean comes in a half-pound pack, it is suitable for coffee shops that require a particularly distinctive espresso flavor and somewhat higher bean quality, or for espresso lovers with not very large usage.
[Front Street Coffee Front Street Specialty Blend]Colombia : Brazil, ratio 3:7, roasted blending;
Flavor characteristics: a comfortable bittersweet taste, extremely smooth on entry, with a faint grassy aroma, a fresh fragrance with slight bitterness, sweet and smooth, and a finish that makes one feel pleasant.
Coffee beans from Colombia's Huila region have a pleasant acidity, a mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and a rich sweetness that is very thought-provoking. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have a comfortable bittersweet taste and are extremely smooth on entry. This Front Street Specialty Blend coffee is suitable for use in various specialty coffee shops.
[Front Street Coffee Front Street Commercial Blend]Colombia : Brazil : Robusta, ratio 3:6:1, roasted blending;
Flavor characteristics: classic taste, caramel sweetness, nutty and cocoa-type, dark chocolate flavors, balanced acidity and sweetness, slightly bittersweet, with a lasting finish.
Coffee beans from Colombia's Huila region have a pleasant acidity, a mellow aroma, moderate acidity, and a rich sweetness that is very thought-provoking. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have a comfortable bittersweet taste and are extremely smooth on entry. Robusta provides rich crema. This Front Street Commercial Blend coffee is suitable for coffee shops and beverage shops of various sizes.
[Front Street CoffeeFront Street Black Cocoa Blend]Yunnan AA : Brazil, ratio 3:7, roasted blending;
Flavor characteristics: with soft fruity acidity, caramel sweetness, nutty and dark chocolate flavors, smooth and viscous, but the taste is on the lighter side.
Yunnan's natural conditions are very similar to Colombia's: high altitude, large temperature difference between day and night, a mellow flavor profile, moderate acidity, rich and full-bodied taste, uniform bean size, high oil content, and fruity aroma. Its quality and mouthfeel are similar to Colombian coffee. Coffee beans from Brazil's Cerrado region have a comfortable bittersweet taste and are extremely smooth on entry. This Front Street Black Cocoa Blend coffee bean is suitable for small coffee shops, bakeries, and beverage shops.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
