# Single Estate Vs Blended



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

Hi All,

Happy New Year first of all

Now, being a bit of a self confessed 'Coffee snob' I always have a bit of a tendency toward Single Estate beans and enjoy not only the refined character etc, but also knowing precisely where what i am drinking has come from and picturing that place, the bean varietal, the earth in which it was grown, the rainforest or mountain or fields etc and all the environmental factors that came into play during growth and process to give the bean its personality, I find this to me gives an extra dimention and enhances the sensual experience.

This isn't to say that I am closed to the idea of high quality blends and I very much enjoy the changing top quality house blends at my local Boston Tea Party in Barnstaple. Still, I have yet to find a blend to really persuade me out of my ways and this makes me think could be seriously missing out, which concerns me!

I was just interested to find out what you guy's are drinking and your thoughts on the matter and if there are any epitomal blends that I 'really' must try and anything else that you would like to say.


----------



## Filthy_rich85 (Jan 20, 2011)

I prefer single estate purely because I like to try and pick out the notes and I find most blends are a little to complex for my taste buds to find any notes at all


----------



## Ian_G (Nov 10, 2011)

One place you could look for higher quality blends is here http://espressoitaliano.org/doc/Miscele%20qualificate.pdf This is a list compiled by the Italian Espresso Institute to show which blends get their seal of approval. Sourcing the beans might be a bit more difficult though.


----------



## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

I definitely identify with trying to visualise the farm and the processing and the 'journey' the coffee has gone through to get to me.

I tend to go with blends for espresso and single origins for brewed. I tend to find blends from quality roasters are a bit more forgiving when it comes to brewing espresso whereas a single origin through v60 really lets you concentrate on the flavours.


----------



## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Have you tried the James Gourmet Formula 6 blend?

The beans currently used are listed in the description


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Some SO espressos are excellent, some are minging. The thing I love about a good blend that has been well thought out and tested is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a true skill to plan a blend based upon target characteristics that would work well together, find and source the beans that deliver exactly what is sought, and roast them perfectly... rather than just banging together random ratios of south american, asian and african. There are roasters out there who can roast SO beans absolutely fine, but can't create a good espresso blend.

I do go for SO for brewed coffee, and the filter blend I got from Blue Bottle Coffee was bad, but I do plan to keep trying to find a good filter blend. I don't see SO as any better than blends at all as long as the beans used in the blend are good quality.


----------



## CoffeeMagic (Aug 7, 2011)

In some cases I think you are missing out on some great coffees by sticking to single estates. There are many coffees that are only sold through cooperatives and you may find them as the staple in some fine blends. For example Guatemalan Huehuetenango and Brazilian Santos are 2 very good beans for blending but are not estate coffees. I wouldn't use Santos as an SO for espresso but it adds a certain sweetness to an espresso blend.

I agree that some blends are good and some 'not so good'. It is difficult to account for everyone's taste and for my forthcoming launch I have created 3 blends with totally different characteristics - one for brewing, an all-day and an espresso blend. I have no doubt that adjustments will be made over time, as I'm quite particular about what I would drink myself and sell to customers.

With so many coffees available and so many combinations and ratios, I wouldn't want to do the calculation. Suffice to say that I agree strongly that it isn't about using standard formulas (although some work well







) or guesswork. However, when you have customers to serve and seasonal crops you sometimes have to go with the best you have.

Sorry, rambled on a bit...


----------



## ChiarasDad (Mar 21, 2010)

I lean towards blends, simply because I have somewhat better luck with them, while my experience of singles is often that they seem crafted for interestingness first and sort of fundamental flavour hedonism second. But I am not a devotée of either type exclusively, and in fact it looks like my January is going to be all singles (Tegu AA right now, then 500g of Londinium's decaf Costa Rica so I can experiment with my new equipment without totally exceeding my caffeine budget).

If you tend to like singles, though, you probably should have a look at Londinium, who are mostly focused on them.


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

You have all made some very good points, Mike, what you said really hit home, that basically a single estate, each crop is more or less with the gods whether it will be any good, while a blend has been carefully crafted to the taste of the blender and therefor i guess providing they know what they are doing you are always going to end up with a more consistantly good end result.

Then again, for me knowing that you will always get something consistant, in some way, removes some of the magic, as a human has consciously decided how the coffee should taste rather than Nature, though i suppose it is a different kind of magic because the blend may have been created by a genious or maybe by accident or after years of searching for that certain 'Je ne sais quoi'.

I guess, not that I ever thought of blends as inferior coffee in any way shape or form, it just proves that single estates and blends both have the potential to be equally amazing or equally terrible!!


----------



## ChrisP (Jun 19, 2011)

I like my SO's. Mainly because I roast my own. I usually do a bulk purchase which gives me ten different varieties. If I were to start blending them I could probably do the whole 20kg and maybe only discover a couple of really good blends. What I normally do is drink SO coffee's and if I come accross any that I'm not keen on I tend to make a note of their characteristics and put them to one side. Then when I've finished all of the ones I like I'll play around at blending the crap ones. To be honest most of the time the blend of the crap ones is always better than them on their own!

When I'm buying my coffee pre roasted then I'll buy blends. This is because they're tried and tested and blended by professionals and they're usually pretty good. I love the Square Mile Summer Espresso blend!


----------



## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

Does anybody drink blended coffees other than in espresso? (I'm talking about high quality here...not kenco)

When I first took an interest in coffee nearly 30 years ago blends in bean form from tea and coffee merchants were commonplace. These days it seems the only blends are for espresso.

I've yet to find a single origin that I would be likely to stick to for espresso. Whilst they can be wonderful, interesting and captivating, after a while there is always something missing.

I'm afraid the current fashion for light-roasted acidic coffees through an espresso machine just leaves me baffled. Sometimes, less is more and more is less.


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Tried one and didn't like that particular one, but very keen to keep trying.

Since it's a new year and predictions for 2012 are popular, I'm going to predict a rise in the number of brewed coffee blends on roasters' websites.


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

Expobarista said:


> I've yet to find a single origin that I would be likely to stick to for espresso. Whilst they can be wonderful, interesting and captivating, after a while there is always something missing.
> 
> I'm afraid the current fashion for light-roasted acidic coffees through an espresso machine just leaves me baffled. Sometimes, less is more and more is less.


http://www.coffeecompass.co.uk/shop/roasted-origin-coffee/south-america/peru-tunki-500g.html

Please, TRY THIS COFFEE!! (and you mike and anybody who wants to try my absolute all time favorite) This stuff is incredible, but please don't snap it all up before i have had so much that i am sick of it!

Make sure though if you do try it, to get it at its very best, tell them 'Nick M' recomended this and that you would like his favorite 'special roast!' they will know what you mean. I have it roasted a little fuller than their standard for this bean, which while an incredible coffee as standard, this stuff really comes alive when roasted that little bit darker.

To get an idea of what it's like first, check the forms page on here, the last one was one that i did for this. You say there is always something missing with single estate espresso, I also find that many can lack the 'x-factor'. I too am not the biggest fan of very light roasted beans for espresso, not that i like many very dark ones either, this one is on the fuller side of a Full City roast i guess and is a truly life changing coffee.

I have experimented with Espresso, Wood-Neck, Aeropress and French Press and it just seems that no-matter what you do with it, it is totally Sublime!!


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Aah, shame. After such a great recommendation I was interested in buying from them but they sell kopi luwak, and my views on companies that support this terrible product are well known. Afraid they won't be getting any business from me.


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

They sell only the true wild as far as i know though


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

I deal with these guys every week and find them an absolute pleasure, They also roast your individual order and send out on the day without fail, unlike other companies who tend to do a mass roast once a week of all their orders, I even told them the other day about a bag i had split in transit(not their fault) and they send me 200g of indian bibi peaberry just to say sorry for parcelforce! I love these guys and i am sure that they wouldn't knowingly sell 'unwild' luwak. It even says in the write up "collected from the jungle floor"


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

That's what they all say. I've met farmers. I've actually picked the stuff myself in Indonesia. I've read articles by journalists who have met farmers and got the truth. Even the main philippino exporter says battery farming of wild animals is how it's done. The chances of it really being from free, wild civets are a million to one, sadly. And the truth is, even if it was true wild kopi luwak, that would still be no reason to buy it considering how the interest in the product only encourages the 99% of non-wild/fake products to continue (Sorry... don't want to hijack this thread... just explaining my reasons.)


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Don't get me wrong... I don't think all roasters who stock it are being deliberately bad guys... but there's a lot of lies out there and the roasters may just be victims of it. Either way, if they stock it I don't frequent them. If they take it off their website I would love to buy other stuff from them. Would be great if you could feed that back, since you know them







They may appreciate the info.


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

I am totally with you on that one mike, I will drop Greg an email tomorrow and ask him if it is true wild luwak, Thing is though i guess when you are a small business trying to make money and you have a product that you can sell at 35pounds per 110g and it is wild stuff, I guess not everyone is going to be thinking they might be exacerbating the issue of battery farmed produce.

After how good these people have been to me I would struggle to condemn them for selling wild Luwak or Unknowingly selling the bad stuff


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

I will feed that back to them, no problem. The Tunki Mayo is just beautiful though and i would love you to give it a go, their roaster is also a true genious of his field. I will try and persuade them on the Luwak before the Tunki runs out!!


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

Whoa! My mistake they are actually are now charging 44pounds per 110g for the luwak, maybe this means they are running out and won't be getting any more! you would also hope that it is wild at that price!


----------



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Okey cokey. Well if they are interested in learning more about this then please PM me and I can put together some things for them to read up on. My hope is to work with roasters rather than against them, so they can make an informed decision whether or not to be involved in marketing this product. One consideration is that although the £44 per 100g sounds good for them, it is actually bad for their business since there is increasing anti-kopi-luwak sentiment within the industry and the public... recently there was a sizeable boycott campaign in the US after a big name company started selling it. They removed it from their site very quickly. Anyway, nuff said. There are already threads devoted to this.


----------



## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Back to topic - Im about to try Hasbean's Christmas filter blend, this will be the first filter specific blend for me. I shall feed back once its been through Aero, V60 & Kantan.

Generally I struggle with South American single estates as espresso, they are a lot more finicky to dial in, often requiring more work with brew temp, grind and dose...acidity and sourness often dominate any chocolate/caramel notes. Espresso blends are more forgiving, 2 or 3 shots and I know what im dealing with.


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

I am personally a huge fan of good south american and find they are usually worth the work to dial them in, you just have to use intuition and i sometimes updose and slightly over-extract, they often respond well to a 30sec extraction. That said, Tunki totally breaks the mold and behaves more like a kenyan, while yielding everything I love about south american coffee and more, the mouthfeel is orgasmic!!

It will be interesting to hear about your filter blend, what is in it?


----------



## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Outlaw333 said:


> I am personally a huge fan of good south american and find they are usually worth the work to dial them in, you just have to use intuition and i sometimes updose and slightly over-extract, they often respond well to a 30sec extraction. That said, Tunki totally breaks the mold and behaves more like a kenyan, while yielding everything I love about south american coffee and more, the mouthfeel is orgasmic!!
> 
> It will be interesting to hear about your filter blend, what is in it?


50% http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/El-Salvador-La-Ilusion-Bourbon-2011%252d2012.html

50% http://www.hasbean.co.uk/products/Costa-Rica-Zarcero-Honey-Process.html

I have to say, first attempt with the V60 produced a nice cup. Very zingy and sweet


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

Sounds good, I might give it a blast.

'Extract' have a gorgeous filter blend, well worth trying.


----------

