To Blend, or Not to Blend, That is the Question

If Chazzano Coffee roasts over 30 different single origin coffees every day, why create blends? 

We're running out of coffee, let's try to look like geniuses: The main reason for creating blends is that we are always selling out of our most popular coffees while we wait for the next 2000lb. shipment of beans. We then scramble to find a suitable blend that is well balanced and similar to the missing single origin coffee. There are many wonderful examples of blends developed under duress: Tres Arias Blend, Domani Blend, Frank's Blend #2, Frank's Blend #3, Frank's Blend #4, (we don't talk about Frank's Blend #1...), Lecca Lecca Limone, Lisa Lisa, Mighty Mint Blend.

Crazy Curiosity: The biggest reason is we are insatiably curious. We love coming up with new blends that have a completely different flavor profile. Our newest blend, the Domani Blend, was invented because we had a few minutes in between busy times to treat the cafe like a Coffee Lab. Some wonderful examples of keeping ourselves out of trouble: Jen's Blend, Winter Blend, Klaire Bear's Tropical Summer Blend, Rob's Espresso Blend, Theresa's Blend, Rachel's Wedding Blend, The Lunch Cafe Blend, the original Chazzano Espresso Blend.

My Wife has a Bad Husband: Another reason for creating a new blend is that my wife and I (and our children) used to live in Farmington Hills.  I spent all day at the cafe drinking coffee and would always forget to bring home fresh roasted coffee. Therefore, my wife would suffer with 3-4 week old coffee. In order to make it a bit palatable, she would blend different coffees and thankfully, remember what she blended. In this way, Creamy Dreamy and P-Jam were created.

Happy Accidents: Finally, the last reason for creating a new blend is what I call, the happy accident. With the happy accident, I forget that there are beans already ready in the hopper and then I drop in another unrelated bean. I cuss loudly only to myself, send out a primal scream to the universe, and then I dump the beans and hope that I'm more genius than dope. 

The Art and Science of Roasting Coffee

For the past two years, I have been roasting with the Micro TostaCaffe from cafecoffees.com. I can roast up to 4lbs. with excellent results. It comes with a puffer module that blows the smoke away from the beans and away from the house. A thermometer is easily used to determine the temperature of the beans. I purchased a Data Acquisition Module that Don Hudson of Cafecoffees developed that allows me to collect data about the roast on my laptop computer with either spreadsheet or graph capabilities. This last piece of equipment has allowed me to repeat favorite roasts more accurately. I prefer this roaster to other excellent roasters on the market because of the large capacity of the drum. It is easy to see the development of the roast both by hearing the cracks (1st and 2nd crack), by the color, and by the smell. Before I attempt to duplicate a favorite roast, I examine my meticulous notes.

Coffee roasting combines both science and art. Each roasting batch has different flavor potentials depending on the temperature- the speed at which it reaches that temperature and the duration of roast at that temperature. If the beans are roasted light, I am sometimes surprised at the complexity of the cup. If the beans are roasted towards full city, the beans now have a different flavor profile. The length of time that the beans degas (release CO2) changes the bouquet (smell of freshly roasted beans) and the aroma (the smell of the brewed coffee). Sometimes coffee beans are best if consumed within 3 days. Sometimes, I forget about a roast and let it sit in vacuum sealed bags for 1 week and I am surprised at how mature the coffee smells. By mature, I mean that the coffee has begun to develop new interesting flavor characteristics. Like wine, coffee can remind you of flavors as diverse as tobacco, flowers, fruit, leather, chocolate, caramel, medicinal (bad), or herbs. In fact, coffee has double the amount of flavor characteristics as wine: 1500 to 750.

There are a plethora of steps to an outstanding cup of coffee. 1. The science of planting the coffee trees with the optimal levels of nutrients in the soil. 2. The care by which the pickers choose the best batch of beans and separate the defects(moldy, insects, debris, unripe, etc.) from the rest of the batch. 3. Shipping the green beans quickly to the coffee roaster. 4. The art of the coffee roaster that brings the freshest and most interesting flavor profile to the coffee. 5. The science of brewing the coffee at 190-195 degrees Fahrenheit with the proper amount of coffee to make sure that the coffee is neither over or under- extracted. 6. Serving the coffee quickly after brewing. There are over 100 steps from the coffee plant to the coffee cup.

Blending different coffees is also an art form. Coffee roasters (people) need to cup their single origin coffees at different degree of roasts to determine what are the characteristics of the particular bean. Beans from Ethiopia, Guatemala, Brazil, Panama, India, Rwanda, Hawaii, Kenya, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Sumatra, Indonesia, etc. all have different potential. From one year to the next the quality of the beans from a particular region can increase or decrease. Roasters (people) know what to expect from each of their different beans but there is still a great deal of guesswork and experimentation involved to create an interesting and delicious blend.

Cupping and Blending- The Best Blend, so far...

At the Chicago CoffeeFest, I learned how to cup coffee. Cupping is just advanced tasting. The goal is to carefully document the flavor, aftertaste, and defects of each single origin coffee. Cupping is very similar to wine tasting. In fact, coffee has twice the amount of flavors and chemicals than wine has. Coffee is actually more interesting to cup or to taste than wine. Great coffee should be interesting to drink. One should be able to taste different flavors without adding milk, sugar, or artificial flavors.

I have finally developed a blend of Central American coffees with some African coffees that is creamy and sweet and has an incredible floral aroma. I have been told that blending more than a few coffees is not recommended. However, I added a few scoops of another coffee to my Giggles Blend which includes 5 different coffees and I truly found the best coffee that I have ever had. I have read that blending should be done after each individual coffee is roasted. Again, I roast them all together. The new "Rock the House" blend will help you give up adding milk- I hope.