Coffee blends

Coffee blends are made up of more than one type of coffee bean. A coffee blend can have many constituents or it might be just two or three carefully chosen origins. The different coffee beans used in blends can come from any country or any region.

For most of coffee’s history it has been served as a blend and the world’s most famous and most desirable coffees were all blends. The classic Mocha Java pairing of Mocha beans from Yemen with Java from Indonesia was probably the first internationally traded blend and it was hugely popular for several centuries. Still is. Some famous blends had a dominant bean, others were more democratic and let all the constituents shine.

Almost all our coffees are blends, apart from our decaf. We are quite clear in our view that blends perform better than single origins. A good roaster will have an intuitive sense of how a single origin will interact with other types, as well as how the flavours, aromas, and textures will compliment one another. This intuition strengthens and sharpens with time and skill, and the combination of insight and experience can elevate it to a fine art.

It’s incredibly satisfying to create a coffee mix that is more than the sum of its parts. By mixing three distinct beans, each of which is a 6 or a 7 (out of 10) in its own right, a skilled blender will be able to create a blend that rates 9 out of 10. The magic lies in the blending, and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

 

We have a more detailed page here on single origins Vs coffee blends.