# Blends or single origin



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

*jonc: Split from Foundry thread at Mrboots2u request. *




Fevmeister said:


> Thanks for the insight
> 
> Any plans for a blend perhaps?


Why the fascination for a blend ?


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## foundrycoffeeroasters.com (Jun 19, 2014)

Fevmeister said:


> Thanks for the insight
> 
> Any plans for a blend perhaps?


No plans for a blend. I'm not a fan to be honest, don't really see the point of them. Some stuff works as espresso, some works best as filter.

The main issue with blends for me is that you really have to roast all the constituent parts to a very similar level of solubility, otherwise you just get really messy drinks. I think this is a real skill and in my (very limited) experience, I've never really had one that tastes all that good, probably due to uneven extractions. I prefer the depth of flavour you get from well Brewer single origin coffee.


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

Mrboots2u said:


> Why the fascination for a blend ?


Call me unsophisticated but some of my best cups have been blends

cult of done by workshop is fantastic


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## foundrycoffeeroasters.com (Jun 19, 2014)

Everyone likes what they like, luckily there are roasters catering to all tastes - I don't think it's a question of sophistication, just preference.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Fevmeister said:


> Call me unsophisticated but some of my best cups have been blends
> 
> cult of done by workshop is fantastic


and more often that not its bean one bean only when ive had it .....

Its an interesting point - what is a blend doing that a SO isnt ( nothing for me )

Can a mod split this off so we dont derail this thread please


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Fevmeister said:


> Call me unsophisticated but some of my best cups have been blends
> 
> cult of done by workshop is fantastic


Do you know which ones you had ? at least two of the ones this year have been SO


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

I'm very uninterested in blends these days . One exception would be a dedicated espresso coffee for milk drinks.


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## 7493 (May 29, 2014)

I started with blends and now use all SO. Compass for the most part. We like the mid to darker end of the spectrum and Compass have some excellent examples. Thanks to MrBoots and a competition I also tried some Atkinsons SO which was lovely. Ordered a couple of others off the back of it. One was OK but we hated the other (more expensive) lighter one. The lesson, I think, is discover the style you like and stick with it. Experiment by all means but if trying a new supplier go for the end of the spectrum you like.


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

Mrboots2u said:


> Do you know which ones you had ? at least two of the ones this year have been SO


Not exactly sure, last time was from pot kettle black in manc, was awesome

perhaps in May/June of this yr?

theyre on v.25 at the minute, never realised they constantly changed it

was 100% a three bean blend when I had it, was talking to the chap behind the counter about it


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

Fevmeister said:


> Not exactly sure, last time was from pot kettle black in manc, was awesome
> 
> perhaps in May/June of this yr?
> 
> ...


http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ym6ugYNGYeAJ:www.workshopcoffee.com/products/cult-of-done-espresso+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Four varietals from the same farm? Not really a blend as such. Any Cult of Done I can remember has been a single origin (although I get it fairly infrequently)


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

jeebsy said:


> http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ym6ugYNGYeAJ:www.workshopcoffee.com/products/cult-of-done-espresso+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
> 
> Four varietals from the same farm? Not really a blend as such. Any Cult of Done I can remember has been a single origin (although I get it fairly infrequently)


could well have been that then


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## Fevmeister (Oct 21, 2013)

I remember the guy talking about tobacco notes from a Guatemalan bean


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

The two cafes I visit most provide the perfect variation for me - one does a (by my tastes) a really nice "house blend" and then will have a guest blend also, most of the time...

The other has two single origins at a time. I end up going to the latter more often, just because they change their S/O's weekly, whereas the house blend is... "house" so pretty stable.

I can't say I give that much thought to whether a coffee is S/O or a blend but I like blends for the variation so go there more often.


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## yardbent (Aug 8, 2015)

in general - once you've found 1 or 2 SO beans you like - do you stick with them...?

or constantly trying new beans - which can be an expensive pastime....


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

I always roast single origins, then if I want to, I post blend them. I think you have to fully understand the single origins before you can decide whether certain ones work together in a blend, you also have to think hard about whether to blend beans with wildly varying grind requirements if in large %s. I think it's reasonable to enjoy single origins, but as espresso or even a long drink a blend can widen the flavour spectrum and add to the experience. Sure I like to understand all the origins, but I know that some of them don't go well in espresso as a single origin, but as a component of a blend they can be great.

I generally blend no more than 3 beans as I find things get a little too muddled for me after that and I'm not sure 4+ bean blends bring much to the party.



> in general - once you've found 1 or 2 SO beans you like - do you stick with them...?


God no, I want to try as many single origins as I can. I also like to change bean quite often. I couldn't imagine drinking the same 1 or 2 beans all the time. Even as I type I have 3 types of Nicaraguan, 2 Guatamalans, Gems of Atraku Microlot, 6 types of Brazilian. 2 types of el salvador, Guat Decaff, Monsooned Malabar, Colombian, Malawi, Kenyan, Ethiopian Harrar, Peruvian, Costa Rican and a few others. I couldn't Imagine not having a store-cupboard full of coffee.


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## h1udd (Sep 1, 2015)

as a drinker only and never roasted, I buy SO's and want to try them all .. but .. I love seeing what roasters can come up with in there blends, so ALWAYS have a blend on the go ... which means I generally buy my coffee from roasters that are doing good blends as thats what draws me to their shop.

a Roaster that can make a blend to cut through milk in a flat white AND still punch through with highs and lows, balance acidity, the right amount of floral-sh1te etc etc .. is a modern hero in my books


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## yardbent (Aug 8, 2015)

DavecUK said:


> ............... Even as I type I have 3 types of Nicaraguan, 2 Guatamalans, Gems of Atraku Microlot, 6 types of Brazilian. 2 types of el salvador, Guat Decaff, Monsooned Malabar, Colombian, Malawi, Kenyan, Ethiopian Harrar, Peruvian, Costa Rican and a few others. I couldn't Imagine not having a store-cupboard full of coffee.


strewth...you must drink gallons.!

how do you store to prevent 'staleness'...?

i only use about 1.5kg a month


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

yardbent said:


> strewth...you must drink gallons.!
> 
> how do you store to prevent 'staleness'...?
> 
> i only use about 1.5kg a month


I roast share...so when I roast I usually do around 3-5kg at a time. The roast sharing allows me to have a decent stock of coffees and 400+ ziplock 1 way valve bags that can be heat sealed, so the coffee stays fresh. Without them sharing the cost, I would have to settle for less variety. They get excellent grade coffee at a bargain price and I enjoy a wide variety of coffee, everyone wins.

oh I don't usually buy 70kg sacks I either share them or buy very specialist stuff as Microlots. e.g. I have 20kg of Nicaraguan El Buey Microlot, Gems of Araki Microlot, a different Nicaraguan Microlot, Penta Packed Daterras etc..

as an example http://www.hrhiggins.co.uk/coffees/withdrawn_coffees/withdrawn_coffees/nicaragua_el_buey_microlot/ is what I have. he sells it at 37.60 per Kg, which is bloody expensive, most roasters will be 22+ for it. Mine will be around 15 per kg, because it's at cost+a bit for the roaster, bag leccy, transport etc.


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## PeterL (Aug 5, 2015)

As an espresso / double espresso drinker, having recently moved from my Elektra to my R58, I am sleeping around on my roasters as for the first time I can taste everything mentioned on the tasting notes and am loving it.

I have not found a single origin that is not suitable for espresso and I am not sure I would ever go back to a blend.


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## foundrycoffeeroasters.com (Jun 19, 2014)

Yeah, I tend to think that most coffee will work in espresso in some way but whether or not it works with milk is another thing altogether.


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## PeterL (Aug 5, 2015)

foundrycoffeeroasters.com said:


> Yeah, I tend to think that most coffee will work in espresso in some way but whether or not it works with milk is another thing altogether.


Your Guatemalan is going down nicely this week thanks










Lovely tone, not super sweet but very well handled and described.


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## frothycoffeeman (Oct 10, 2015)

Hi all.

For all my espresso beans I've bought they've been blends from UNION. But after reading peoples thought's/feedback on SO I thought I'd give some a try. Busy waiting on a action bid on a almost new SDTP(poss used twice return job) and I thought of grabbing a bag of SO and see how they taste through my current machine. Then if I win the SDTP see how it compares through a machine better suited to make espresso(better temp control over the Scultura). Only gone with UNION till now, but Rave have cropped up a few times so I though I'd grab their Colombian Suarez. If SO taste's as good as people report I will be exploring these alot more over the coming months.


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## simontc (May 21, 2014)

Remembering everything is subjective is a good place to start with this thread...

The next point I think we need to ruminate on is the fact that the majority of us explore coffee as a continuum... Our tastes/preferences aren't necessarily fixed on one source of our drink. Additionally we're happy to focus on other points of the 'spectrum' of coffee, different brew methods for example.

With this in mind could we look at blends and SO's inhabiting different points along the expanse of 'coffee-dom'. I know many of you have enjoyed square mile's sweet shop and red brick blends and, undoubtedly, the flavours that are explored there are attributable to the human intervention of muddling different beans together. Think of them almost as a surrealist piece of cinema. Reflecting something more abstract in our taste perceptions, allowing us to pick layers of taste and attribute this to the roasters choices (which can also be done with an SO but it seems to have more prevalence with blends). The question one asks oneself is 'What is the roaster trying to convey here?'

Im off to scratch my head now...


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## Beanosaurus (Jun 4, 2014)

I think some blends really do work but as Lee mentioned earlier in the thread - there arises issues with different levels of solubility between the different coffees.

At a given brew ratio one coffee in the blend might extract optimally while the other could fall short and be in a manky EY or even over extract.

Sounds like a nightmare from a roasting standpoint!!


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## h1udd (Sep 1, 2015)

I guess that's not too much of an issue when dealing with espresso as the majority of the time the brew is a 1:2 ratio or there abouts in 30 seconds-ish ..... Blending can't be that much of a nightmare with espresso due to the relative standardisation of the pour.

Admitedly there is some variation depending on bean, but not much and not often


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## simontc (May 21, 2014)

Beanosaurus said:


> I think some blends really do work but as Lee mentioned earlier in the thread - there arises issues with different levels of solubility between the different coffees.
> 
> At a given brew ratio one coffee in the blend might extract optimally while the other could fall short and be in a manky EY or even over extract.
> 
> Sounds like a nightmare from a roasting standpoint!!


What if one coffee tastes better on the under ey side, but needs a bit of a 'thickener' so you use a coffee that might over and run at the time the under needs, adding a 'crispness' or other taste to the other gloopier spro??


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## foundrycoffeeroasters.com (Jun 19, 2014)

I think that the bigger companies need to have blends to keep coffee shops happy and to make it simple for them. Of course, the blends change pretty regularly due to seasonality but an awful lot of coffee shops want to stick with a certain blend which represents something to them. You're right, a nightmare from a roasting point of view and most blends I've tried, I really don't like. In harder water though, I've had square miles sweet shop and it's been consistently good, at least in London. I think it's much more variable up here which is probably more about water - it's designed to work in London water after all.


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

Im thinking of a 4 bean blend so hope you roasters can enlighten me,

45% base south & centrals

35% african

20% p.n.c or indo's

just curious to know will storing the green beans blend for two or more weeks in container equalise the moisture content to do a all in one roast, i know it sounds all balls but there you go.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

Don't think you can just put a fixed ratio, you really need to play around, roast beans separate and mix it up, single dose when grinding mixing per shot to see how it is.

I did a five bean roast once, was all over the place in the cup.

Would suggest going 2 beans first and go from there.


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

If a blend tastes good then I'll drink it but I'd struggle to tell you whether a coffee was a blend or a SO if I were blindfolded I reckon... I don't recall ever having a nice blend and thinking it's specifically "different" to SO's... With more than two beans it's surely near impossible to tell how many coffees are in it?


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## h1udd (Sep 1, 2015)

Twoday roasters have an interesting "blend your own" section that gives you some ideas.

https://twodaycoffee.co.uk/our-coffees/blend-your-own

When I used to pass them on a regular basis I would buy small quantities of self blended ... Normally 2 varieties 80% base and 20% other to liven it up ... They were my gaggia coffee days .... Sometimes I would stick 5% robusta on just to get a freaking crema out if it ... God bless my attempts at blade grinder


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

the way my taste buds are lately i seem to be roasting darker and darker, as froggystyle say's i need all over the place, bright, acidity, mouthfeel, cocoa, and all the fruits, delicious.


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## "coffee 4/1" (Sep 1, 2014)

h1udd said:


> Twoday roasters have an interesting "blend your own" section that gives you some ideas.
> 
> https://twodaycoffee.co.uk/our-coffees/blend-your-own
> 
> When I used to pass them on a regular basis I would buy small quantities of self blended ... Normally 2 varieties 80% base and 20% other to liven it up ... They were my gaggia coffee days .... Sometimes I would stick 5% robusta on just to get a freaking crema out if it ... God bless my attempts at blade grinder


They were the days a gaggia & blade all shite and mybe a Wow! drink,thanks for that post of twodaycoffee, just had a thought of the hidden gem, under the radar sort off,Fazenda uk at spitalfieds, antonio there will do some great blends

with wood roasted beans, there usually 2week old but no oil on mahogany roasted beans, think that a sort the taste buds out,


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