# Pre Roast Blend or Post Roast Blend



## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

This is an old chestnut & over the years I've spun between the two methods.

I started with Sweet Maria's green Liquid Amber Espresso Blend which I used to import from US cheaper than buying coffee beans here. The price differential has long since eroded. This was a beautiful blend of 5 beans & always amazed me how well they roasted together. So I continued to pre blend roasts based on this experience. Some were good some not so good.

A few years ago I decided to start post roast blending in the obvious belief that different beans would roast to their best individually. I have experienced a fair amount of success with this method.

However I have begun experimenting with pre roast blending again & enjoying some success. I seek to roast for espresso. I think maybe the different beans add something to each other during roasting together.

I tend to include either Monsooned Malabar or Indian Balmaadi as a base bean mixed with an El Salvador, a sweet Brazilian, Guatamalan or a Ethiopian Yirg. I try to keep the blends simple usually just 2 beans & take the roast about 20 seconds into second crack.

Today I enjoyed a blend of El Salvador Alaska Bourbon & MM. I ground fairly fine on the Versalab putting 18 grams into the basket. I extracted just 27 grams liquid in 29 seconds & it looked very thick. With milk in a cappa however it was sheer nectar. Sweet plain chocolate with black cherry background. An old fashioned 'Black Forest Gateau'. Probably the tightest grind/volume ratio I have ever successfully used.

As with everything coffee you never know the unexpected outcome until you try to do something different that suits your taste.


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## jimrobo (Aug 5, 2011)

sounds lovely ron!!!!!!


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Do you plan which beans to put together, and if so what criteria do you use? I find different beans need very different profiles and take different times to reach their end point.


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

I never look to extract the very delicate flavours available with the correct degree of roast for a bean in an espresso blend. I tend to seek a bean that will make a particular contribution to the mix. Maybe sweetness, deep flavoured fruit rather than delicate, honey or caramel. Blended with the strong earthy full bodied Indian coffees they produce an espresso to my taste. Incidentally my taste is not so 'way out' as my blends are usually well received by people who try them, as some members on here who have sampled the product can tell you.

Most of the beans I am using I have already tried as SOs so I get to know the spectrum of flavours within the bean & what contribution they could make to my mix. Maybe this is why, at the moment, I limit the blend to just two beans.

Bear in mind espresso is my drink of choice so I prefer strong predominant flavours which shine when mixed with milk.

Without doubt this is the reason I don't really get on with Hasbean style of roast. Now something like 'Hands on' Black Chough or Lusty Glaze,'Origin' Farmer 30 or James Gourmet Formula 6, I really do like.


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