Blended Coffee Meaning – What Is A Blended Coffee?

In this article I talk about the blended coffee meaning. I’m sure you have heard people talking about coffee blends, espresso blends and single origin, but what exactly are they talking about, and what do these terms mean?

By the time you have finished reading this article, you have the answer to this very question!

What Is A Blended Coffee? What Are Blended Coffee Beans?

A blended coffee is exactly what it sounds like. A coffee that you have bought that is marked as a blend is a blend of different coffee beans that have originated from more than one place. Quite often, as is in the case of many espresso roasts, the beans are a blend of Arabica and Robusta beans as well as a mix of arabica beans from different locations either globally or within the same country.

Robusta coffee beans are added to boost the caffeine content.

There is not just one type of coffee bean, there are four, Arabica, Robusta, Liberica and Excelsa coffee beans.

A blend does not necessarily have different beans from different countries they may have a mix of beans from the same country but different areas and different coffee farms. Coffee blends do truly come in a wide range of forms and varieties. From coffee chains that sell their own blends, to commercial coffee blends to specialty blends sold by coffee roasters to, well, single origin coffees.

What Is A Single Origin Coffee?

Single origin coffees are usually exactly what the phrase suggests from a single location of origin.

However,

this often gets abused to mean the single origin coffee beans come from more than one origin or location within the same country and can include any number of individual coffee beans from a variety of altitudes, soil types and coffee farms. Each bean and location has their own flavor profile.

Depending on which country, the climate can be very different, which affects the flavor. True coffee aficionados like myself consider single origins to mean from one specific region or Provence with in a given country.

Anything else, in my humble opinion, is a blend.

The beauty of coffee blends is there is a certain artistry of coffee blending that permits you, with the aid of a master blender and master roaster, to create your own unique and rather fantastic tasting blend of coffee by simply mixing a variety of coffee beans.

Blends are often made to meet customer demand or to meet market demands.

Examples Of Coffee Blends

Common recipes for making your own blends of coffee you will find on Facebook groups and various forums. Before you jump straight in and start making your own blend, consider practicing with some common coffee blends before you dive in and make your own distinctive coffee blend.

Here are some examples of common coffee blends:

• Black And Tan: To make this blend you need to blend an equal amount of light roasted Colombian and dark roasted Colombian beans bringing out the flavor qualities of each roast level. Mixing different roast levels works well for single origin coffee beans.
• Mocha-Java Coffee Blend: This is a classic combination of Yemen and Indonesian beans and is one of the oldest known blends. This mixes 2/3rds Sumatra Mandheling full city roasted beans and 1/3rd Yemen Mocha at full city roast. The result is a full-bodied coffee with a deep chocolaty taste yet very smooth.
• Filter Drip Melange: This is a blend of Kenyan and Colombian Coffee with 60% of the beans a Colombian full city roast and 40% Kenya coffee at a full city roast. This is a bright acidity coffee with bittersweet after-taste. Perfect for drip coffee.

Coffee Blends Vs Single Origins

I’ve often been asked about coffee blends Vs single origins and if single origin is best. Both coffee blends and single origin coffee are considered as specialty coffees in the coffee industry.

There is a lot of flexibility in regard to the roast levels, acidity, flavors and coffee blends. Here is the low down on Coffee Blends Vs Single Origins.

Flavor Profile

A single origin coffee has an original and unaltered flavor profile, especially when it is a pure single origin / single coffee farm or unique Provence or region within a country. A coffee blend combines a variety of elements and flavors of a variety of beans. Single origins have a tendency to be more exotic in taste, bolder and much more robust, whereas as a blend does what the name signifies, blends and marries different flavors to compliment each one.

Consistency

Coffee blends tend to have a more mellow and consistent taste due to being a cocktail of different beans. Single Origin coffee tends to vary in taste from season to season slightly due to varying weather conditions from year to year. You will notice changes in taste from time to time with different batches of single origin coffee beans.

Purity

Single origin coffees are desired by coffee lovers for their high quality and purity as well as the story about their origins. The majority of single origin coffees have a crisp and clean taste and are said by many experts not to be ideal for milk based coffee drinks.

A blend of coffee beans has a variety of beans from different origins.

Espresso Blend Vs Single Origin

The vast majority of espresso coffees are blends as by blending 3 or 4 different coffee roasters can get a more consistent coffee for espresso lovers. Espresso blends tend to have a mix of both Arabica and Robusta coffee beans and traditionally the roasters focused more on avoiding bad or too strong flavors rather than having highlights of good tasty ones.

By blending multiple beans roasteries are able to get a more consistent taste and more of the coffee aromatics in with their final espresso coffee product.

Today, a large degree of coffee roasting for an espresso blend tries to match up two to three coffees that compliment each other very well. Examples of which are pairing a floral Kenyan coffee with an earthy Mexican coffee to create a harmonious blend and a very distinctive flavor profile, and an  aromatic espresso.

Other common flavor profiles from an espresso blend can include marrying floral aromas with fruity aromas. With any of these specialty blends you are unlikely to encounter deep roasted charred, over-roasted espresso roast as most are roasted to a borderline dark roast.

Nowadays, coffee is getting roasted lighter.

Single origin coffees are a more wild and full of flavor which makes them more difficult to control and manage in an espresso machine.

Espresso blends make an espresso easier to manage and to get that consistent flavor.

The Case For A Single Origin Espresso

Coffee from a specific farm, a farm specific single origin coffee is fairly new to coffee enthusiasts. This is something that has grown in popularity over the past few years. In Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, Ethiopia and El Salvador drinking coffee from a single farm crop is something they have been drinking for centuries.

While we stuck with blends or Brazilian coffee.

It is only recently in the past 20 to 30 years that, with the third wave of coffee and the specialty movement, that we have been enjoying single origin coffee a lot more and roasting lighter and lighter to bring out the characteristics of each single origin bean.

Now, single origin coffees are easy to find, and not just online on Amazon, you can find them at your local roaster, be it a crisp Guatemalan coffee, or Burundi Coffee or an exotic Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee.

The main reason for and main argument for a single origin coffee is the diversity in flavor, and when brewed in an espresso it can be pretty intense.

How To Blend Coffee Beans For Espresso

It is common for a coffee roaster to enhance the brightness and complexity of an espresso blend. Zambian, Yemen Mocha, Ethiopian Harrar, and Zimbabwe coffees are often used. Ethiopian Harrar beans add an intense blueberry aromas to your coffee, while Kenyan coffee beans brighten up your cuppa Joe.

Adding body and a rich flavor for espresso, blending Asian and African beans are often used with popular beans being Sulawesi, Sumatra, East Timor, Java, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and New Guinea, which are all great choices. The Ethiopian Yirgacheffe has a very powerful floral aromas.

These are all popular and rather tasty single coffee varieties in their own right.

How To Create Your Own Coffee Blend To Sell

Taste and test each cup of the coffees that you want to use separately. Take note of the flavor, acidity, fragrance, body, aroma and aftertaste. Now taste and test them next to each other and determine which coffees enhance the taste of the other.

Tasting and testing is known as coffee cupping. There is an art and technique to it. Be sure to rinse out your mouth before and after tasting each cup and take notes of the flavor.

There are no clear and set rules when it comes to blending coffee beans. Be sure that each single coffee varietal is of the best quality that you can get. The objective with coffee blending is that the blend you make is better than each of the individual coffee beans used.

Starting with a good base of a full-bodied and sweet Brazilian coffee and add another coffee of your choice. Try to fully comprehend the characteristics and flavor of the beans that you are using as a base. Have a good long consideration as to what you could add to it to bring out a greater taste. Set a goal with regard to the flavor that you want to achieve with your espresso blend.

Put this into practice, make you espresso blend and try it. Pay attention to the change in taste of your base coffee and your blend. Repeat this process by adding other tasty coffee origins to your blend.

The next task is to try and mix 3 to 4 varieties of coffee together successfully until you get a blend that works well and has the flavor profile that you are aiming for.

After deciding on what variety of coffee works well for the blend that you are trying to make, experiment by making different small batch of coffee beans with different ratios and find out which brings out the flavor profile that you are seeking.

Experiment with different roasts in your base blend by roasting a bean higher and lower than the others. I like to take a scientific approach here by making only one change at a time. Typically, I’ll have my base coffee beans and then decide on what beans to add. I’ll add just one at a time and experiment with different roast levels before adding another coffee bean.

The majority of coffee roasters making their own personal roast do not take this scientific approach. This way the expectations of coffee flavor do not catch me out as I am only making one change at a time.

Your goal is to roast each bean to its peak flavor and then add it to your base for a more complex taste.

Single variable testing! Make your own perfect coffee blend, and you will be head and shoulders above the majority of modern coffee lovers. I encourage you to make your own blend and even your own flavored coffee by getting in on the home roasting revolution with an inexpensive home coffee roaster.

Frequently Asked Questions About Blended Coffee Meaning

What Is The Purpose Of Blending Coffee?

The purpose of coffee blending is to create custom and designer flavor profile that is distinct, consistent, balanced and above all delicious. Often blends are created with a specific person, style of coffee and demographic in mind.

Is Blended Coffee Good?

Yes, some of the best coffee that I have tasted is a blend. Nothing quite beats a well thought blend of two or three high quality single origin coffee beans. The coffee at Starbucks are blends, often Latin American and East African or Indonesia beans are blended to make great coffee.

When coffee is blended you get a great mix of the best flavors together that create a harmonious taste and aroma when you have the skill to roast them together and get the best flavor notes from each bean into the blend without one or the other dominating.

What Is The Difference Between Blended And Instant Coffee?

Instant coffee is coffee that has already been brewed, processed and freeze-dried and then packaged. All you need to do to make a cup of instant coffee is to add hot water.

Blended coffee starts of with two, three or more unroasted green coffee beans being roasted together and with the skill of the master roaster creates a delicious new flavor that combines all the flavors of the beans.

Is Blended Coffee Real Coffee?

Yes, blended coffee is real coffee. It’s simply a mix of different coffee beans with origins from different regions that have been thoughtfully put together and roasted together to create a flavor profile that is better and tastier than any one of the individual coffee beans on their own.

What Happens If I Blend Coffee?

If you blend your own coffee, putting together different types of your own coffee beans of a single origin you might just create a great new flavor profile that nobody else has ever enjoyed. You will, if done well, get a better tasting coffee.

The goal is to get the best notes from each of the single origins into your cup.

Is Coffee Blended Before Or After Roasting?

Roast masters blend their coffee before roasting and mix the different beans together and then roast them together.

Frappé-Ing It All Up – Blended Coffee Meaning

The blended coffee meaning has been detailed in this article. Now that you have read this far you should also know what a single origin coffee bean is and how it may not be strict as I’d like it to be and how some coffee producers take advantage or their being no official regulation to define it.

I hope you give good consideration to the blending tips and think about the artistry and uniqueness of making your own blend of coffee for your own personal or for commercial use.

Join our fun, active, vibrant and highly informative coffee community on Facebook/Meta and share your coffee blending tips and tricks.

Derek Marshall

Derek Marshall, a certified barista by the Specialty Coffee Association possesses over two decades of experience in specialty coffee shops. He holds professional certifications for coffee brewing and barista skills. Derek is also an author with authoritative books covering various coffee topics including specialty coffee, sustainability and coffee, coffee brewing, coffee recipes, coffee cocktails and books focusing on Brazilian coffee, Vietnamese coffee, Indonesian coffee and Malaysian coffee. As a barista for over two decades, Derek Marshall has worked in specialty coffee shops across the United Kingdom, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. His expertise extends to the distinct coffee cultures, specialty beverages, and brewing techniques of each nation. Functioning as a coffee consultant, Derek charges US$50 per hour. To learn more about Derek Marshall and Latte Love Brew, visit his About Me Page. For coffee inquiries, contact him at +34-639-410-375 or Derek@LatteLoveBrew.com, mentioning your name and location