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Blending
WHY BLEND?
Why indeed? If you have a single origin you love - there is no need to blend. The goal in blending is to improve your coffee, to add notes, flavours and complexities resulting in something better than the sum of the individual parts.
As the quality of the coffee available in the New Zealand continues to improve, we very rarely blend for our own personal consumption nowadays - preferring to enjoy the attributes of each origin separately.
HOW HARD IS IT?
Unlike commercial roasters, you won't be as constrained by cost. Your objective is to achieve your own perfect coffee - not to manage profit margins.
With just a few experiments you should have a result that surpasses most commercial roasters simply because it is fresher. Perfecting your blend by altering the roast to achieve the perfect crema, flavour, acidity, body and aftertaste takes time and patience, but is a rewarding and educational experience.
As with anything, try and keep it as simple as possible - between two and five different origins.
Potentially the most difficult and challenging part of blending is to keep your blend consistent as each season brings slightly different attributes to each origin. This is one of the main reasons that commercial roasters rarely share what is in their blends - as they are constantly changing to maintain the same outcomes.
WHAT DO YOU NEED?
There are three things you need:
- Your end goal - what you are aiming for. You may base your goal on a commercial roast you have bought in the past - or may have tasted something close that just needs a little tweaking. Write down what you like and be as descriptive as possible.
- Know your ingredients. Order some sampler packs and roast each origin to your preferred roast level. Then taste each origin on its own and note your view of how it tastes. When blending, you will now have a good idea of what bean is contributing what quality to your blend.
- A notebook. There are so many variables when working with blending. Take notes of each experiment - what quantities of which single origins went into the blend, how far they were roasted and when. Also record aroma, fragrance, flavour, acidity, body and aftertaste when tasting.