What is the difference between individual coffee beans, boutique coffee beans and blended coffee beans?

Individual coffee is made from a single coffee bean produced in the country of origin and is a pure coffee without milk or sugar when drinking.

Single Origin is relative to the blending of coffee beans (Blended Coffee). To put it simply, a single product can be a single coffee producing country, a single producing area, or even a single manor.

An important feature of the individual product is that it can be traced back to the source, so that coffee lovers know which estate this kind of high-quality coffee comes from, and the taste represents the origin, producing area and bean species.

For example, Blue Mountain Coffee, Kenya, Colombia, Yega Snow Coffee and so on all belong to individual coffee, each of which is affected by the climate difference of the place of origin to form a unique flavor, no milk, no sugar, you can fully taste the original taste of the coffee. Usually we call them "black coffee".

With the arrival of the third wave of coffee, more and more coffee lovers will pay attention to and pursue coffee knowledge such as brewing methods, flavor of origin and so on, which makes individual coffee more popular.

What is boutique coffee?

Individual coffee can be divided into boutique grade coffee beans and commercial grade single coffee.

There is a clear definition of boutique coffee:

Only in the most favorable micro-climate and soil and water conditions can we grow high-quality coffee with unique flavor, and SCA (Specialty Coffee Association boutique Coffee Association) score more than 80 points can not be regarded as fine coffee, that is, commercial grade single coffee.

Individual coffee is generally extracted by siphon, hand brewing and other brewing methods, which can be selected according to individual taste preferences.

The advantage of individual coffee is that it can better retain the original taste of the coffee.

What are blended coffee beans?

Blended coffee beans are made by bakers or baristas who mix coffee beans from different places to produce a more balanced taste.

For example, if one kind of coffee bean is slippery but lacks aroma, another kind of rich aroma bean can be added to combine the advantages of different coffee beans. Sometimes the beans are mixed and then baked, and sometimes the coffee beans are mixed after baking.

Matching is both a technology and an art, with the style of a baker or barista. After blending, the taste of coffee is more balanced, more palatable and more stable, so it can be said that the taste is more popular.

On the other hand, matching can also reduce the cost to some extent. Therefore, blended coffee is much cheaper than individual coffee.

The fancy coffee we often drink is based on espresso liquid, with milk, milk foam, various syrup or cream and other ingredients, such as American style, latte, mocha, caramel macchiato and other fancy coffee is the product of coffee beans.

Does single coffee taste better than coffee beans?

Drink a single cup of coffee in order to get the true taste of the coffee, so there is no sugar or milk.

Some roasters have pointed out that if you use an Italian coffee machine to brew individual coffee beans into a single product concentrate (Single Origin Espresso), under high pressure, various characteristics of coffee, such as acidity, sweetness, and bitterness, will be magnified, which is not acceptable to everyone.

Therefore, it is not necessarily better to have a single cup of coffee.

If you cook it by hand, AeroPress, etc., the sharpness is much lower than that of a single product, and it is more acceptable.

In addition, the taste of coffee is more acceptable with light or medium roasting. Of course, you can also try to add dilute water to a high concentration of single coffee.