For coffee lovers ‘single origin’ coffees have become all the rage over the past decade and more. The term refers to coffees that are grown in one specific location such that the person enjoying the coffee knows where the beans have been cultivated.
‘Blends’ of coffee are combinations of beans from different locations. Sometimes these specific locations can be communicated to the end consumer. But the challenge in creating a good blend rests in part on the skill of the roaster and those deciding on the proportions of different coffees used in the blend (done during the ‘cupping’ of the coffee).
When designing a blend, roasters are often looking for a good balance of flavours. In designing our Pace Espresso blend, we combined the chocolatey flavour profile of a Brasilian coffee with the fruity flavour of an Ethiopian coffee and after several trials created a blend which accentuates both flavours in the right amounts – but we should qualify this by saying that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in creating a flavour profile!
Blends are often drunk mixed with milk, so during the testing phase it is as important to taste the coffee with milk as it is as a neat espresso. “Suitable for espresso” is actually another way of saying that the coffee is good for making a variety of coffee drinks such as latte, macchiato and cappuccino.)
Creating a good blend might appear to be a big challenge, but it can also be fun where the aim is to produce a profile different from the individual components of the coffees used.
At Pace Coffee we mix our coffees into blends after roasting the beans, weighing out amounts like a chef in a kitchen and then mixing them together. Post-roast blends allow us to roast the coffees separately according to the specific characteristics of each coffee, based on a variety of factors such as region, bean size, altitude, moisture content and processing method.
Our Pace Espresso combines coffees from two countries (Ethiopia and Brasil) grown at different altitudes and processed in different ways (washed and natural respectively). Our Pace Perfection blend uses two Ethiopian coffees of different flavour profiles, both processed as natural coffees.
We hope you enjoy sampling both blends, as well as our single origin coffees with their own unique flavours!
We would also like to acknowledge the support of our expert roasters at Lindfield Coffeeworks in helping us design our blends!
