Best Coffee Bean Blends

[sjmyst]

Hi,

Any suggestions for how you choose good your coffee bean blends?

Do you have a blend recipe or brand you found that you love?

What makes a great blend? For example, these two countries usually do well. Or, these roasts work for me when combined.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards,
sjmyst

 

[ensoluna]

This is a very complicated question, but I will try to answer you as simple as I can.

1. Why blend?
a. In business, people blend lower quality to make more profit. As simple as that. (probably #1 reason for blending)
b. or, they want to create their own signature flavors (like "Charbucks" carbony flavor).
c. or, trying to achieve better flavor profile than SOC (Single Origin Coffee).... if you do not know what SOC means, you need to research your own.

2. Do I blend two or 3 green coffee together and roast them at the same time? or roast all 3 beans separately and blend?

that would be depends on the coffee characteristics.
as an example, if you want to blend "Maragogype" (biggest coffee beans, size of Elephant) and Mocca beans (smallest coffee bean. size of a cat), you must roast separately and blend because if you roast them together, smaller beans will be burnt before Maragogype gets brown. (photos are attached below)

or, if you want to use 6500 feet high typica beans which are very hard dense beans, with 2500 feet Prime beans which is very soft beans, you also can not roast them together. Prime beans will burn. (Tip : higher altitude beans are harder and dense beans. need more time and more heat to roast. Lower altitude beans are softer and less dense. So less heat and shorter time. Generally speaking. BTW, Denser and harder beans are better beans)

So, it is extremely important to realize each beans characteristics before you blend and roast.

2. how to choose my coffee bean blends?

Depends on what kind of mood I am in.... yes, kind of.
I work in Guatemala and our country has fine acidity & body with good balance. You can even use same beans (let's say Bourbon from Antigua). you can use 60% of Bourbon roasted full city plus. and 40% of same beans, roasted City. This creates more and deeper flavors, just by mixing two different types of roasts with same beans.

or.

Sometimes, I craved for sharper + sweeter + aromatic, then, you can add about 25% of central american beans (SHB) with other country (such as Brazil, Indonesia..etc)
But sometimes if I like, more body + really sweet, then add 35% of Sumatra. You will gain body but you will lose sharpness.

There are millions and millions of combinations..... literally..

3. what makes a great blend? which two countries...etc
Personally, I like Ethiopia(or Kenya) - these two countries sometimes share very similar characteristics & Indonesian (Sumatra or Sulawesi).

Anyway, this is very complicated subject and tough to explain everything here.

 

[PinkRose]

It wasn't too long ago that we had a discussion thread where a few of our members (who roast coffee) posted some recommendations for creating coffee blends. They used percentages of various coffees to create their blends. They also discussed whether or not to roast each coffee separately and then blend them - which seemed to be the best way to do it.

Of course, this morning I can't find it, and I don't have a lot of time to look for it right now, but I know it's on this Forum somewhere..

Rose

 

[sjmyst]

This is a very complicated question, but I will try to answer you as simple as I can.

/QUOTE]

Ensoluna,

I agree. It is very complicated. But, you did a wonderful job with your response. You brought up a lot of points that I already was a little familiar with. And, some that I hadn't thought of at all.

So, thank you for your well thought out response. It gives me some specific ideas for some combinations to try (Kenya/Sumatra; I keep hearing about Kenya, so need to give that a try). And, some great ideas for things to research more.

Regards,
sjmyst

 

[sjmyst]

It wasn't too long ago that we had a discussion thread where a few of our members (who roast coffee) posted some recommendations for creating coffee blends. They used percentages of various coffees to create their blends. They also discussed whether or not to roast each coffee separately and then blend them - which seemed to be the best way to do it.

Of course, this morning I can't find it, and I don't have a lot of time to look for it right now, but I know it's on this Forum somewhere..

Rose

Rose,

Yeah, I also tried to find an already existing article before I posted. I was able to find a couple of articles that were kind of related. But, they were a little more specific. Like blending for espresso.

Since I wasn't able to find that, I went ahead and posted. If you do end up finding the time, and finding the other post, please do post a link to it here. I'd love to see what others have already said.

Thanks!

Regards,
sjmyst

 

[ColeenKitchens]

Choosing the right coffee beans will depend on one's taste buds. However, I used to hear from my dad that the Robusta beans are often chosen because they are affordable.

 

[sjmyst]

Thank you for the response ColleenKitchens. My research agrees with your dad.

Another benefit of Robusta seems to be higher caffeine. Although, some think the taste of Robusta is just not as good as Arabica.

I've read in some places where mixing your favorite Arabica with a high caffeine Robusta can make for a great tasting, eye opening morning cup.

Regards,
sjmyst