Blending Green Coffee Beans

The unique flavor each green coffee bean variety carries with it sometimes can be combined with others to create a more complex taste.  This is especially true with espresso.  Many espresso blends will carry three to seven different types of green coffee beans.  The art of blending requires knowledge of each bean.  Once the characteristics have been determined for that variety, a roaster may combine them to create the desired blend of flavors.  Debate exists today among professional coffee roasters whether to roast all the different beans together or separately.  We recommend trying both methods and experiencing with different blends of coffees.

The key to blending is what we call a “happy union”. Find coffees with certain favorable characteristics that would marry to other coffees with different characteristics well.  Blend them so that you are getting with one what the other lacks.  Example would be a rich body Sumatra with a fine brightness of a Costa Rican.   The examples are endless.

For your enjoyment, here is a classic espresso blend:

4oz. Brazilian Mogiana
2oz. Indonesian Sumatra
2oz. Costa Rican Tarrazu
1oz. Yemen Mocca
1oz. Ethiopian Harrar

Adding Flavors to Coffee

We have to admit, we are purist here at Coffee Storehouse and when we get the question as to how to get that local “Chocolate Pecan Cinnamon coffee” that sells down the street – we all cringe.   Most commercial flavored coffee is typically low-grade robusta slathered with fragrant chemical oils to get that taste.    It doesn’t matter what quality of coffee used here since the oils dominate the taste!

Much of these flavored beans are left in bins for months at a time and because the fragrance hides the rancid oil of old stale coffee, customers don’t know the poor taste they might be experiencing. However, if you've got to have the flavor we suggest doing it other ways.