Can Blended Coffee Beans Work for Pour-Over Brewing?

Yes, blended coffee beans can be used for pour-over, though suitability depends on roast level and composition. A test blend used Yunnan Typica as the base with Yirgacheffe Kochere and Gesha Village Red Label Natural Gesha. The result was a clean, clear cup with soft, varied acidity and medium-to-high sweetness, showing black tea, cocoa, caramel, and jackfruit notes.

Most blends are built for espresso, combining two to five beans roasted together or separately so their strengths complement one another. Existing espresso blends used as pour-over tend to show higher body with some roasty aroma and obvious sweetness. The development involved repeated adjustments to the pre-blend roasting curve and cupping verification to balance the pairing beans.

Many people assume that blended coffee beans can only be used for espresso, but Front Street Coffee has proven through actual research and development that pour-over can also handle blended beans. This article fully documents the entire process of Front Street developing an autumn pour-over blend: from determining Yunnan Typica as the base bean, to pairing it with Yirgacheffe Kochere and Gesha Village Red Label Natural Gesha, and then to the repeated adjustments of the pre-blend roasting curve and cupping verification. You will see the blending approach, the logic for selecting the base and pairing beans, the trade-offs between pre-blend and post-blend, the details of roasting parameters, and the final flavor expression of black tea, cocoa, caramel, and jackfruit.

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As autumn turns to winter, the weather gradually becomes cooler. Long ago, Front Street created the Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun espresso blend, which is suitable for espresso blending. Following this line of thought, Front Street also wanted to create a blended coffee bean suitable for autumn drinking and usable for pour-over coffee. Front Street Coffee hopes that this blended coffee bean can express a clean and clear flavor and mouthfeel, a soft yet varied acidity on the palate, and a medium-to-high sweetness in the finish.

Blended coffee beans are generally associated with espresso beans. So can espresso beans be used for pour-over? Front Street believes that as long as they are coffee beans, they can all be used for pour-over coffee—it is just a matter of whether they are suitable or not. However, espresso beans generally use 2 to 5 kinds of beans blended before roasting or after being roasted separately, so that the strengths and weaknesses of each bean complement one another, making the coffee rich and aromatic. Therefore, they lose the characteristic of single-origin coffee beans that express the flavor of a single origin. With several of Front Street Coffee's existing Front Street espresso blends, if used for pour-over coffee, because the roast level is darker, the flavor will show higher body, but there will be some roasty aroma, and the sweetness in the finish is very obvious.

Among its existing beans, Front Street Coffee selected several that would be considered for inclusion in the blend, namely: Front Street Yirgacheffe Washed, Front Street Costa Rica SHB Caturra Washed, Front Street Natural Yirga Red Cherry, Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica Typica Washed, and Front Street Gesha Village Natural Gesha. The cupping scores of these beans are all around or above the specialty coffee line. Front Street currently has four espresso coffee beans: Front Street Commercial Blend, the espresso moka pot coffee bean recommended by many baristas—Front Street Black Cocoa Blend, Front Street Specialty Blend, and Front Street Sunflower Warm Sun Blend. Do you know how Front Street Coffee's blending recipes came about? Then let Front Street use the recipe for a pour-over blended coffee to show everyone the thinking behind making a blended coffee!

[Blending Approach]

At the beginning of development, Front Street needed to determine what flavor the theme of autumn should express: its mouthfeel does not need to be too heavy, it must have the fruit flavors of the autumn harvest, and it must be sweet! Front Street Coffee's consensus was to choose one base bean plus 1–2 pairing beans to harmonize the flavor; if too many beans are used, the main theme will be lost, and the flavor will be too messy and difficult to balance.

[Determining the Main Flavor Coffee Bean]

The base bean used in the recipe must be inclusive, have high sweetness, also have body, and be sufficiently stable in quality. To meet such requirements, everyone searched back and forth through the database—for each coffee we had at least 3 roasting curves and cupping scores. By comparing their evaluations, advantages, and disadvantages, we finally selected our Yunnan coffee bean Typica from among dozens of beans.

Front Street believes that [Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica] is our local coffee, and source-level quality control can be well managed. It is also a bean that combines mouthfeel and flavor, with a balanced mouthfeel and a long, lingering sweet finish, making it suitable as a blending base—but Huaguoshan is slightly lacking in the uniqueness of acidity and flavor. In terms of flavor, the first choice is naturally Ethiopian beans—Ethiopian coffee is also called the "coffee gene bank." Ethiopia itself has more than 2,000 known coffee varieties, so in terms of flavor it is absolutely complex enough! So among the many Ethiopian beans, which one should be chosen? Thus came our next work... Candle Light, Huakui, Aricha, Kochere, Worka... a dazzling array of varieties with various floral, berry, and citrus notes

[Finalizing the Pairing Beans]

Generally speaking, single-origin Arabica coffee is enough to make very good-tasting coffee: a fresh aroma, a soft mouthfeel, and a sweet aftertaste. "Blending" means combining coffees from different origins, each with its own unique taste, aroma, and mouthfeel. By mixing and matching according to the flavors you like, you can make your own exclusive coffee.

First round of pour-over blend testing: what was relatively satisfactory was 7:3, Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica : Front Street Yirgacheffe Kochere, with mild citrus acidity, chocolate at the finish, and slightly weaker sweetness. After cupping comparison and research on coffee tonality, we chose Front Street Washed Yirgacheffe Kochere—it shares with Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica a black tea finish, and its citric acidity and orange flavor can increase the layering and brightness of the recipe, adding points to Yunnan.

[Pre-Blend or Post-Blend?]

If we were to post-blend according to the roast level most suitable for these 2 beans, it obviously would not work. Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica uses a medium-dark roast, while Front Street Yirga Kochere is a light roast. When making pour-over, Yunnan would be over-extracted while Kochere would be under-extracted.

As a result, the flavor of the entire cup of coffee collapsed, so we resolutely decided on pre-blending!

[Roasting Approach and Adjustments]

In terms of moisture content, the 2 washed beans are relatively close. As for bean quality, Typica is softer, but the relatively large Yunnan bean is also close to the harder but smaller Kochere in heat conduction, so roasting these 2 beans together is not likely to cause uneven roasting; moreover, we adopted a stepwise heat-reduction roasting method. After dehydration and homogenization, there is a longer Maillard reaction time to make the 2 beans develop more synchronously. In determining the roast level, we also adopted a "middle value." This development time and drop temperature effectively remove the sourness and excessive herbal notes that appear when Yunnan coffee is roasted too light, while also preserving the floral and fruity aroma of Yirga well.

Charge amount 300 grams, charge temperature 170°C, charge with the heat off. After 30 seconds, turn on the heat to 140, airflow 3. When the bean temperature reaches 140, lower the heat to 120, and open the airflow to 4. At 4 minutes 30 seconds, dehydration turns to yellow. At 168°C, lower the heat again to 90. First crack begins at about 8 minutes, open the airflow to 5, develop for 1 minute 45 seconds after first crack, and drop at 195°C.

In terms of ratio, we first chose Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica : Front Street Yirga Kochere—a 6:4 ratio. Cupping result: good cleanliness, light sweetness, apple freshness, plum acidity, and an orange aroma in the aftertaste. The overall impression was that the mouthfeel was good, but the flavor was slightly thin. So after cupping discussion, everyone decided to add a bean to enhance the flavor—[Front Street Gesha Village Red Label Natural Gesha]. This time the ratio used was Front Street Front Street 2013 Typica : Front Street Yirga Kochere : Front Street Gesha Village Estate—6:3:1.

Lowering the proportion of Kochere made the acidity of the whole bean softer than before, and 10% Gesha Village brought more fruity flavor while also enhancing the floral aroma and the tea aroma in the finish. In roasting, in order to retain more floral and fruity aroma, the drop temperature would be lowered a little; the time from dehydration to first crack was slightly shortened to retain more reaction substances, and the development time after first crack was increased to develop flavor.

Roaster Yangjia 600g

Charge amount 300 grams, charge temperature 170°C, charge with the heat off. After 30 seconds, turn on the heat to 140, airflow 3. At 140°C, lower the heat to 120, open the airflow to 4. At 4 minutes 30 seconds, dehydration turns to yellow. At 168°C, lower the heat again to 90. First crack begins at 7 minutes 46 seconds, open the airflow to 5. At 188°C, lower the heat to 50 to extend development, roast to 2 minutes 05 seconds, and drop at 193°C.

This roast increased the time after first crack to develop flavor while also making the development degree of the 3 beans more even, and a slightly lower drop temperature can preserve the floral and fruity aroma of Gesha. The roast level of the pre-blend was set at a medium-light roast, with Yunnan Typica making up a large proportion. This is because this Yunnan coffee can already show a distinct brown sugar aroma at a medium-light roast, and also has black tea and a bit of creamy flavor, performing cleanly in the cup with high sweetness.

Because the moisture content and hardness of the three beans are all relatively high, although the varieties are different, fortunately the screen sizes do not differ much, so it would not increase much roasting difficulty just because it is a pre-blend. After several rounds of pour-over, after pour-over and cupping, the taste of this pre-blend met Front Street's expectations. But it is worth noting that pour-over cannot follow espresso extraction standards. The acidity on the palate is soft and somewhat varied; the acidity gradually connects with sweetness from the mid-palate, and the sweet finish is lasting and lingering. There is a feeling of fresh green plants, with aromas of black tea, cocoa, caramel, jackfruit, orange, and nuts. The taste is transparent and clean, with medium body and a slightly sparkling mouthfeel.

At this point, Front Street had a preliminarily determined [Autumn Pour-Over Blend]. This coffee, which combines the characteristics of Asian and African beans, basically meets the theme and flavor characteristics, and everyone was relatively satisfied with the cupping and actual brewing results.

So do you know why many espresso coffees need two or more coffees in the composition? In the earliest days, the quality of espresso was not very good, so the most important thing was to improve the quality of lower-priced coffee. High-quality Arabica coffee beans have a clean coffee flavor, very good coffee aroma, and a smooth aftertaste, but they are expensive. If high-quality coffee is mixed with lower-quality coffee, then to a certain extent most of the quality of Arabica coffee can be retained while the price is relatively lower.

Now, due to the overall coffee environment, the quality of coffee beans has generally improved quite a bit. Espresso blends are usually made to achieve a balanced effect, ensuring it is beneficial to the quality of the espresso. Most espresso beans are a combination of high-quality Brazilian coffee beans and African coffee beans or Central American coffee, similar to Front Street Coffee's Front Street Specialty Coffee Blend. Later, Front Street also adds Robusta coffee to produce "Crema" and increase the body of the espresso; this is Front Street Commercial Espresso Blend. Not only that, the main reason for blending coffee is to keep the taste consistent. Everyone knows that coffee is an agricultural crop. When grown under slightly different conditions, the taste of a specific coffee species will also differ. Blending coffee will keep the flavor of the coffee as consistent as possible.

Front Street believes that not only espresso can be blended; in fact, pour-over coffee can be too. The purpose of drinking single-origin coffee is to taste a single terroir characteristic. But Front Street believes that in today's coffee market everything can be inclusive, so many people have begun exploring pour-over coffee in search of balanced coffee flavors.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.