Where do you start n building your personal blend?

[Mhippo]

I started from Google, and got to Sweet Maria's I looked at the beans available to me (not a wide selection, as I don't live near a coffee store) and chose this as my base: Screenshot by Lightshot

The beans I used at the time were Colombian instead of Brazilian, and unknown Ethiopian and Indian Arabica beans instead of the specific ones mentioned in the recipe.

Later, I found a coffee store and swapped the Colombian back to Brazilian, and added an Indian Robusta

 

[peterjschmidt]

Let me ask first, why are you trying to create a blend?

 

[Mhippo]

I had 2 major reasons. The first is that all I could buy fresh roasted beans of was single source. The second was that I've been a coffee snob for many years, and therefore wanted to fine-tune my coffee, and what better way than control of the precise amounts of the different beans.

I have now reached a blend I'm pactically completely satisfied with:

50% Brazil Genuine Cerrado
25% Ethiopian
12.5% Indian Arabica
12.5% Indian Cherry AB Robusta

The Indian Arabica and the Ethiopian I get at the local open air market from stores catering to the Ethiopian community where it's traditional to roast coffee at home, the Brazil and Indian Robusta I get at a coffee store

 

[peterjschmidt]

That's cool... I was just curious, that's all. It seems there are two camps on blending; one sees it as a way to get a broader flavor profile and fill in holes that are lacking in that flavor profile, and the other would say great coffee should be able to stand on it's own.

When I do blend, I try to get familiar with each of the components first, so I know what they're bringing to the table, and then like to try and 'find' their flavors in the blend.