Single Origin vs Blend: What’s the Difference, and Which Do You Prefer?
Coffee lovers often debate whether single origins or blends are “better.” The truth is: both have strengths, both have trade-offs, and both can delight — depending on what you’re after (flavour, consistency, story, price, etc.).
What do the terms mean?
- Single origin means the beans come from one defined place — a particular country, region, farm, or even specific lot. The idea is that you can taste characteristics attributable to that place: the climate, soil, altitude, processing, varietal, etc. We’d recommend the Dimtu Guji as our current favourite single origin.
- Blend refers to a mix of beans from more than one origin (or even multiple lots within one origin). The aim is often to balance flavour, consistency, cost, and/or to produce a certain profile that meets expectations. Our latest blend is our Autumn Blend and it won’t be around for long, so grab it while you can.
Pros & Cons: Single Origin
Advantages:
- Unique flavour profile / terroir: You get something special. You can often pick out nuances in acidity, floral / fruity / chocolatey notes that are very particular to the location.
- Traceability & story: Great for those who like knowing where the coffee came from, how it was processed, who farmed it, etc. This adds value.
- Limited & seasonal: Because single origin depends on harvests, weather, etc., you often get interesting seasonal variation — something new to try. It can feel like discovering.
Challenges:
- Consistency can vary: Since harvests differ, you may get flavour shifts. What was great one season might taste quite different the next if there was a drastic change in harvesting conditions or practices at the farm.
- Price / availability: Single origin coffees tend to cost more, especially micro-lots or top quality estates, and may be available only for short windows. It’s best to let the highest quality coffee’s attributes shine, and show what makes them unique.
Pros & Cons: Blends
Advantages:
- Consistency: Being made up of a larger variety of beans means when one coffee in a blend is switched out, for example to the new year’s harvest of that same coffee, a lower percentage of the overall blend changes. This makes them more consistent over time.
- Customise Flavour: Adding different beans lets roasters balance strengths and mask weaknesses — bring in sweetness, body, acidity, etc., to produce a product greater than the sum of its parts.
- Possibly more cost-effective: Exclusive, rare and unique coffees are best kept as they are, to show off what makes them unique. Generally speaking, larger harvests can be used in blends and they just happen to be a little cheaper because there’s more of them.
Challenges:
- Less “purity” of terroir: The specific origin’s character is less clearly discernible; the blend is an art, but it can dilute or mask what might have been more distinctive in a single origin.
- Risk of mediocrity if not done well: A blend is only as good as its components and the skill of the roaster. If low quality beans are used, or if the roast & blend are not well thought out, the result can be flat or generic.
- Lower perceived prestige: For many enthusiasts the single origin has prestige — for its rarity, its story, its uniqueness. So blends sometimes get overlooked by people seeking “wow” experiences. But that doesn’t mean blends can’t wow.
If you are still not sure about how they are different, why not experience it for yourself? You could try some of our single origins as they are and then mix them together to see what sets them apart as a blend.
