Why Do Coffee Roasters Favour Blends?
Why is it that it is rare to walk into a café and get your coffee made from just Ethiopian coffee beans, or just Costa Rican coffee beans? Simply put, roasters try to give their consumers the best of a few different beans to make the coffee as complex as possible. A coffee with good mouthfeel (eg Brazil) is no good without aroma (add some Papuan New Guinea) or aftertaste (add some Mexican Altura). Coffee aficionados love tasting single origin coffees to taste the nuances in those coffees, but if you are a café trying to maximize your revenue by satisfying as many people as possible, you will want to give them espresso with mouthfeel, aroma, aftertaste, good crema, acidity and smoothness but not bitterness. Think of a coffee roaster like a chef mixing in many ingredients to make his/her signature dish. Those ingredients (for arguments’ sake let’s say they are celery sticks, cream, butter, pumpkin, spices and stock) on their own are not overly inviting, but mixed together and cooked for
