Here are the most frequently asked questions we get about blends:
What is a coffee blend? And a single origin?
Why do you make blends?
Why do you create blends only for espresso milk drinks? Why not for filter or black drinking?
What is the process for creating your blends?
How do I know more about your blend components?
What is a coffee blend? And a single origin?
A blend is a mix of 2 or more single origins.
When we talk about a single origin, we refer to a lot/batch of coffee that is traceable back to one:
- location (farm, processing station, region, country)
- producer (individual or cooperative)
- processing method
- harvest/processing date
Why do you make blends?
To achieve a specific and intentional flavour, body and acidity profile.
This is particularly relevant in cases where consistency is essential—for example, milk-based drinks. Customers who drink these coffee beverages aren’t generally looking for a different flavour every day but a comfortable and constant experience. Here’s where blends make sense, giving us control and confidence that the coffee will taste how we want it.
Why do you create blends only for espresso milk drinks? Why not for filter or black drinking?
As we mentioned above, blends offer repeatability, which is something appreciated in milk-based espresso beverages (latte, cappuccino, etc.). Hence, our blends are roasted for espresso brewing (on the light side) with the thought that they’ll be had milk (though that’s not to say they can’t be enjoyed black, too).
When we drink black coffee, either as espresso or filter, we are open and actually look forward to some degree of variability of flavour, body and acidity profiles. We’re not after a constant, repeated flavour (which is what blends offer). Because of this, we prefer to drink our black coffees as single origins, allowing their diversity to bring excitement and a degree of surprise every day.
(Please note this is only our preference. Some people prefer it differently, and that’s fine. Each roaster does what they love.)
Learn more about our roasting profiles in our journal.
What is the process for creating your blends?
1. Flavour ‘design’:
We develop a specific flavour, body and acidity profile that matches our taste or goal. For example, with Pacemaker, the intention was always to have a silky, delicate cup with chocolate notes—something on the lighter side compared to traditional espresso milk drinks. With Sweet Tooth, we were after something much richer in body and flavour, something darker and more bold.
The target flavour determines the choice of the origins, their proportion within the blend and the roasting level.
2. Green coffee sourcing:
We only source high-quality fresh green coffee lots from small producers and cooperatives. By fresh, we mean beans harvested and processed at most ~12 months prior. By small, we mean independent growers (families, cooperative structures, small-scale entrepreneurs) who generally put out a few tonnes of cherry—very little compared to large-scale mechanised corporate farms.
Naturally, any of these lots lasts a short period (from a few weeks to a handful of months). So, our blends generally change components (the technical term for the origins becoming blend ‘ingredients’) 1-3 times per year.
How do we manage this constant change to create blends that always present consistent flavour, body, and acidity profiles? It’s relatively simple: sourcing components with similar sensory characteristics (origin, varietal, processing method) that result in a matching cup presence.
3. Roasting:
Once we have set the components and their proportions to form the blend, it’s time to roast (every week, to order!).
We use a technique called post-roast blending:
- First, we roast component A.
- Then, we roast component B.
- Etc.
- We let all components cool down.
- We mix A + B (+ etc.) and voilà, ready to be packed.
By roasting each component separately, we can tailor the roast profile to suit their own physical features (bean size, density, etc.)—which often vary between origins. We believe this is the best approach to achieve high-quality blends because we have more control and confidence about the end product.
In the other approach, pre-roast blending, the different components are mixed as green coffee and then roasted together through the same batch or protocol. This can potentially lead to uneven roast levels and unexpected results due to the lack of homogeneity.
How do I know more about your blend components?
We list every component (with its origin, varietal and process info) on every blend web page and bag label. These pages (Pacemaker and Sweet Tooth) are accessed directly through the coffee bag label QR or our website’s main menu in the coffee section.
Each component is a single origin. As such, each has its own coffee page with traceability data, plus a background story and images in most cases. This page is linked and accessible through the blend page.
More questions about blends (or anything else)? Send us an email.