The One by Copper Coffee (Issue 3)

Single Origin or Blends?

What is a Single Origin coffee? Single Origin means the coffee beans are from a single producer in one region or "origin". A Blend mixes different coffee beans from several producers and regions to make one coffee blend.

One might assume that blending coffee beans together would require more work and precision from a roasting standpoint, and therefore should create a higher quality coffee. You might think this. However, if you go to any online coffee company that sells both Single Origin coffee and Blends, you will see that the Single Origin coffee is always more expensive. Why would one bean be more expensive than blending several together?

The truth is that Blends are usually a way for coffee roasters to use cheap coffee beans that don't have the flavor to stand on their own. They might use 90% of a cheap, mass produced coffee bean and blend it with 10% of a higher quality bean. Blends have become more of a marketing engine to create a brand more than anything else (i.e. Christmas Blend, Breakfast Blend).

In the spirit of ESPN launching “The Last Dance” last night, would you rather have Michael Jordan play all 48 minutes in a basketball game or two backups play 24 minutes each? I'll take my chances with MJ and Single Origin Charge Coffee.

Stay Charged,

Seth