Let’s explore today the beauty of coffee blends. They are a world on their own and by no means of inferior quality than single origin coffees. Blends are in essence a smart way of mixing single origin coffee beans.
Let’s recap single origins: there are two large bean families, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica grows at a higher altitude than Robusta, yielding a richer bean with more concentrated flavours and thus floral and fruity notes. Robusta instead is a more resilient species that grows at lower altitudes and tends to provide coffee with often woody and earthy notes. Importantly, Robusta has typically double the caffeine of Arabica.
Blending is the process of mixing two or more of the single origins, each being Arabica and/or Robusta. But why do we blend? Imagine you wanted a coffee which is bold and vibrant yet spicy with a hint of nut meg? Colombian single blend typically offers the boldness and Indonesian the spiciness. The only way thus to obtain exotic flavours is to mix them, i.e. to blend them.
So how do we blend? Mixing coffee up randomly does not do the job. Coffee roasters recommend using no more than five coffee types with each represented by at least eight percent as otherwise the flavour will be lost. The trick is to try out different concentrations to find the perfect balance of taste, strength and body.
For instance, to create signature blends, one would try to find the perfect balance between the base note, the mid-palate pleasure and the high notes. For the base note, sweet browning flavours found in Brazil are perfect. For the mid-palate taste, more fruity coffees found in Colombia are popular. And for the high night, coffees with citric acidity are used such as found in Kenya.
How popular are our blends with our customers? Not surprisingly, they are as popular as our single blends. Our Moving Beans Classic Espresso Blend has been very popular ever since the inception of Moving Beans. However, our Moving Beans Reserve Espresso Blend, which we introduced a few months back is catching up quickly. Enjoy your coffee today!
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