One of the most addictive and stimulating parts of roasting coffee is developing the blends.
By combining different beans together, you can create a more diverse and unique flavour profile than by just using a single origin coffee. Starting with a good, stable base bean, such as a Brazil, and then adding another with a very different character, such as a fruity or acidic tone, you can produce a coffee with greater balance and richness, while bringing out the best notes of each element.
This is where the fun comes in, choosing whether to roast them together, separately, darker, lighter and finally working out the ideal bean ratio. This can take weeks of trial and error and a LOT of cupping sessions to create the perfect blend.
The thing about developing blends is that it is never-ending and always exciting, as we are constantly trying out new combinations and different kinds of beans from all around the world. Visiting different plantations annually enables me to ensure we are only buying beans that are ethically sourced.
Currently, our house blend is 80% Brazilian and 20% Colombian. This ratio works well because the Colombian beans have cherry and grapefruit tones, and the Brazilian beans are renowned for being a great base coffee due to their sweet and stable nature.
Our “Snakey Blend”is quite different from our house blend, as we chose a 50/50 ratio of beans from Peru and Mexico. During profiling, we found that the Mexican coffee has an intense, dark cocoa quality that lingers on the palate and the Peru adds a higher, floral note which brings the blend together perfectly. Just proving that things work better when they’re equal!
You can find these blends – and more – available to buy on our website …
