Blend vs. Single-Origin

For the longest time, just about all the coffee in grocery stores was some type of blend. There was a “breakfast blend,” “espresso blend,” etc. Now single-origin coffees, including Epic Coffee are becoming more common. So, what’s the difference?

Single-Origin coffee is just that. It’s a coffee that comes from one farm or group of farms and is roasted and presented to you without alteration. It is amazing to see the differences in taste from one origin to the next, even within the same country or region.

A blend is a mixture of two or more origins of coffee. Sometimes the coffee is mixed, then roasted, others are roasted individually, then blended. The idea is to provide a more balanced taste. The challenge here is in volume. Blends are produced in large batches, but coffee is brewed one cup at a time. A shot of espresso uses just 42 beans. So, one shot pulled from a blend may have an entirely different profile from the nex shot pulled from the same blend.