How to Blend Coffee at Home
We all have unique tastes and preferences, so knowing how to blend coffee at home is an opportunity to develop a signature blend that you can be proud of! There’s a lot to learn if you decide to roast your coffee at home, from choosing bean varieties, selecting densities, and creating the perfect flavor profile.
Whether you want to reduce the cost of making coffee at home or study up how to make Cafe Du Monde espressos, our guide below will help you to understand how to blend the perfect mix of coffee to suit your tastes!
Creating Your Personal Coffee Blend
The basics of coffee blending are simple; pick a base coffee you love, and brew up to five other beans, mixing and matching to see which ratios hit all the right notes. Our advice is to keep a detailed log of the combinations so that you can replicate that exact blend in your mixed roasted beans.
Selecting the Best Component Coffees
As with all things artisanal coffee, the trick is in the blend. As a rough guide:
- Choose up to five beans per blend – any more is overkill.
- Each bean should make up 8% or more of the final mix.
- Per espresso, you want about 17 grams of ground coffee total.
Starbucks uses a proportion of two tablespoons of grounds per six ounces of water, so if you don’t get that balance right, your cup will taste weak and watery or strong and overpowering.
Next, you’ll want to consider the origin of your preferred beans and the underlying tones you want from your ideal coffee – read on for advice about making the right choices!
Key Factors in Picking Coffee Beans to Blend
Along with the coffee origins, you should consider:
- The sweetness of your base coffee – Coffee Detective recommends light to medium roasts, and the sweetest beans come from Peru, Mexico, or Brazil.
- Your mid-palate commands a little richer, fruity flavor. Try a bean with apple or peach notes, usually found in Colombian, Guatemalan, and Costa Rican coffee.
- Higher notes from light roast coffees, which are a little more floral. Experiment with Ethiopian or Kenyan coffees for that punch of citric acidity.
Building the Perfect Blend Ratio
The optimal ratio is 40% sweet base note beans, 40% fruity mid-palate coffee, and around 20% high notes – but there’s no precise recipe to follow!
Everyone differs, so you can blend beans at varying ratios until you’re happy that you’ve found your definitive blend.
What Equipment Will I Need to Blend Coffee at Home?
Having the right tools to hand will make perfecting your blend much easier; we’d suggest:
- A coffee grinder
- Measuring spoons or cups (or a scale)
- Filtered water
- Bowls for mixing blends
- A coffee maker of your choice
- Notepad and paper to keep track of your ratios
From there, you can play around with blends to design your own specialty coffee. It takes time to master, but with some patience, you’ll soon be a home blending expert!
What Are the Benefits of Blending Coffee Yourself?
Blending your own beans has multiple advantages, not least of which is ensuring you consistently drink beautiful coffee every day.
Some of the core reasons we should all try developing our own blend include:
- Freshly ground coffee beans have a stronger aroma, reduce stress-related free radicals (found in pre-ground coffee, per the New York Post), and taste better.
- Noting down your chosen blend ensures you get the same essence in every cup, without bitterness or overt sweetness.
- Blending at home can be significantly cheaper than buying chain-made coffee and means you get to decide exactly which flavors you get with each cup.
- A signature blend is more balanced and complex than a generic coffee.
As you familiarize yourself with the coffees that taste just right, you can develop as many combinations as you wish, traveling the world through different varieties and origins!
