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Story/ Matthew Perger
Medium Scale Roasters

Serving mostly specialty focused custom-
ers: Intelligentsia, Blue Bottle, Sensory Lab.
Medium scale roasters will generally
create blends that are as consistent as possible
without sacrificing the “voice” of the compo-
nents or seasonality. This means they might
choose 2-4 countries for a blend and stick to
them throughout the year. If they’re smart,
those countries will have two crops per year,
MATT or a widely dispersed crop time. This means
TO BLEND OR the blend can contain fresh coffee all year
round without changing flavour too drasti-
cally. It also provides them with some wiggle
TO BLEND
N ot room to adjust the blend ratios without losing
transparency of flavour. For example, at Sen-
sory Lab and St Ali, we have a blend called
Steadfast that is always Brazilian and Colom-
bian. We utilise the main and fly crops of
Colombia and the varied harvest times of
Brazil to keep it incredibly consistent.
For a very long time “coffee” was a blend by default. Some busi-
nesses have their own namesake as a blend, many larger businesses have Small Scale Roasters
consistent year-round blends, and more recently, specialty businesses
have been favouring the seasonal blend. Almost definitely serving specialty
Blends are shrouded in mystery by many roasters. It’s dark art, customers: Heart Coffee, Square Mile, Mar-
practised by legendary roast masters who claim it cannot be taught. They ket Lane Coffee.
keep the percentages a secret, and some don’t even write the recipe down Small scale roasters will, nearly by de-
lest it be copied! I find this pretty ridiculous and frankly, masturbatory. fault, create blends that are quite variable and
Many roasters can’t roast coffee with perfect consistency week to week. seasonal. A great number of Specialty roasters
This makes the thought of copying a blend well enough to be a commer- name their mainstay blend the “Seasonal
cial threat rather farfetched. Blend” and others will have an offering that
There’s a few reasons why a coffee company will make a blend. includes a consistent blend, as above, along-
Usually, it’s correlated to the size of the business; the economies of scale side a seasonal blend that’s more variable. This
it affords and the consistency at volume it demands. I do acknowledge rapidly changing blend happens for a few
that some companies sit between or across some of the categories below. reasons depending on the business.
Just take this as a general guide to the economies of their main blend Some will explain that coffee is inher-
rather than the business as a whole.
ently seasonal and that they want to celebrate
that by offering a constantly changing blend
Large Scale Roasters according to what’s the freshest. This is the
best-case scenario. Others are just bowing to
Probably not focused on serving high grade specialty customers: the pressure of small-volume coffee buying.
Illy, Starbucks. Without many economies of scale or a strong
Large scale roasters need a consistent product in gargantuan vol- cash flow, it’s in one’s favour to buy a lot of
umes. To keep some semblance of consistency, they buy a constant stream smaller lots more regularly (not to mention
of many coffee and blend them together to mitigate change. Seasonality that the highest quality coffee almost always
is less of a concern because there are enough coffee and flexibility in the comes in small lots anyway). Buying a con-
blend to buffer any seasonal changes in flavour. The downside of this tainer of Brazil would sink many a small
method is the lack of transparency and character displayed by the blend roaster, so the oft-changing blend is some-
components. To be honest, in a blend of 8 components, it really doesn’t times preferred.
matter how floral that Yirgacheffe is. A constantly changing seasonal blend is
That said, it’s truly incredible just how consistent some of these blends great, but makes for an inconsistent product.
are. The logistical and commercial demands placed upon the professionals Some might think of the constantly changing
developing them are mind boggling, and my hat goes off to them. Seasonal Blend as a carefully crafted experi-

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