Jun 02 2010
Coffee Blend
Combining a two or more coffee bean varieties into one coffee blend that has a more intense flavor than the single bean would have on its own. These blends often produce a higher quality coffee than one of the beans alone would produce. Blending coffee beans is a method used to increase the quality of inferior beans and create a better tasting coffee with more aroma and aftertaste that the single, inferior bean.
Blending coffee beans allows consumers to be able to purchase a more flavorful coffee without having to pay the higher costs of some of the more exclusive beans. Coffee blends made of Arabica and Robusta beans are the perfect example. Arabica beans are known for their exclusive tastes and higher costs while Robusta beans are less costly but also more caffeinated than Arabica beans. Many common grocery shelf coffees are blends of Arabica and Robusta.
Coffee shops use the blending method to create their own signature coffees that are proprietary to their company. Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts are two of the best examples of this use of coffee blending. These two companies have created coffee blends that are easily identified by coffee connoisseurs who know their coffees. Their blends are so popular that they consumers can purchase them for use at home in their own coffee makers.
Creating an excellent coffee blend is a long process using trial and error and a lot of taste testing. The blending process is started with a goal in mind, such as what type of initial taste and aftertaste the blend should produce, and how much caffeine it should have. These specifications help the blenders determine which coffee beans to use. The ratios will be determined during the blending process and accurate records kept so that the winning blend can be reproduced over and over again.
Coffee blenders are similar to wine makers; they must know the flavors that are associated with particular countries that produce coffee beans. For example, blenders would know that Columbian or Brazilian coffee roasted full would help to keep the coffee’s full body while a Mexican bean would be used to add sharp flavor and Kenya coffee beans would add acidity. These are just a few of the beans that blenders would have to be familiar with and then they also need to know about roasting the beans.
Coffee blenders also have to decide whether or not to blend their coffee beans before or after they roast them. This is again dependent on the taste that the blender is trying to achieve. In some cases the beans need to be roasted separately in order to control how dark one bean is and how light the other bean is. In other cases it works well to combine the beans and then roast them together.
Coffee blends can be created at the manufacturing or roasting level or they can be blended at home. Individuals can purchase various coffee blends and grind them together at home to create their own signature blend. On the other hand, they can stick to purchasing a signature blend that will be the same consistently.
-Sharon Chapman