How Coffee Blends are Created: Our Coffee Blending Process
We sat down with Ben, our head roaster at Eumundi Coffee, to get the low-down on how he creates the coffee blends our customers know and love. Crafted Bean, the artisan roastery behind Eumundi Coffee, is a dedicated small batch coffee roastery focused on producing unique coffees known for quality, freshness, and consistent flavour.
In this guide we will cover:
Small Batch Roasting
Small batch roasting—typically roasting just 6–10kg of coffee at a time—allows us to have precise control over the flavour and quality of every roast. This hands-on approach ensures each batch is crafted with attention, consistency, and care.
Ben explains:
“Each roast can be adjusted to highlight the unique characteristics of the beans being roasted. It’s a very hands-on process where we control heat and time to shape the roast profile and bring out the best flavour.”
Benefits of Small Batch Roasting
Greater Control
The small batch approach gives Ben complete control over every roast.
“Being able to listen for that first crack is crucial,” he says. “It guides when to adjust the temperature so we can be confident each batch hits our preferred flavour profile.”
Higher Quality
Roasting smaller quantities allows us to visually inspect each batch. Precision is key—and quality is always our priority.
Better Consistency
We specialise in blends that are balanced and consistent, so our customers can rely on their favourite Eumundi Coffee tasting just the way they love it, week after week.
Superior Freshness
Small batch roasting means we roast frequently and on demand. Your coffee isn’t sitting around in a warehouse; it’s always freshly roasted and full of flavour.
What is a Coffee Blend
A coffee blend is created by combining 2–5 single origin coffees, each sourced from different growing regions around the world. Because each origin offers unique flavour notes influenced by soil, altitude, climate, and processing, blending allows roasters to create a balanced and complex flavour profile.
For example, Brazilian coffee is known for smooth, low-acidity beans with flavours such as chocolate, nuts, sweet caramel, and soft cocoa. These characteristics add body and sweetness to a blend, perfect for building a blend with broad appeal.
Next, regions like Colombia contribute vibrant yet balanced flavours. Thanks to high-altitude growing conditions, Colombian coffees often bring bright citrus or gentle berry notes, caramel sweetness, and a clean finish. When roasted and blended thoughtfully, they lift the cup, adding clarity and liveliness without overpowering the base.
Then there’s Papua New Guinea (PNG), a favourite at Eumundi Coffee for its depth and complexity. PNG coffees are known for their rich cocoa, earthy sweetness, nutty tones, and occasional hints of tropical fruit. They offer structure and a bold, full-bodied character that ties a blend together and gives it presence.
By identifying the standout characteristics of each single origin and combining them so they complement each other, we can highlight specific flavours in a way that one coffee alone can’t achieve. This is why blends are often more rounded, consistent, and versatile than single origin coffees.
For our cafés and market customers, blends deliver a signature flavour—one they recognise and return for every time they visit us at the Eumundi Markets.
How Our Coffee Blends Are Created
Blending coffee is both an art and a science. Ben begins by cupping single origin coffees individually to understand their strengths—acidity, body, aroma, sweetness, and finish.
Here’s how our coffee blending process works:
Selecting Base Coffees – We begin by choosing a foundational coffee (or pair of coffees) that provide body and structure—often smooth, chocolatey, or nutty coffees.
Adding Accent Coffees – Next, we add coffees that offer highlights such as brightness, fruitiness, caramel sweetness, or spice.
Testing Ratios – Ben creates multiple test blends, adjusting ratios in small increments until the perfect balance is found. Even a 5% shift can change the entire flavour profile.
Roasting Each Origin Individually – Each coffee is roasted separately to bring out its best characteristics before being blended. This ensures every component shines in the cup.
Final Cupping & Consistency Checks – Every new blend is cupped and compared against our flavour benchmark to ensure quality and consistency.
This meticulous approach is how blends like our Organic Blend, Market Blend, and Home Blend achieve their signature profiles that customers recognise instantly.
How we Choose Beans for a Blend
We asked Ben what he looks for when selecting green beans:
“It really depends on what it’s going to be used for. Sometimes we start with flavours or a specific origin a customer has requested. Other times we begin with supplier samples, and the results take us somewhere completely unexpected. We also look to the processing methods that are used. For example we favour the natural sugar cane method of decafination that our decaf colombian beans use. This method produces the best tasting Decaf Coffee. These plantations also process everything within the country so there are less food miles than some other coffees.”
He adds that blending comes with challenges:
“Developing the roast profile for each bean can be tricky. Finding coffees with characteristics that complement each other is the next challenge. Then determining the right ratio of each is crucial for achieving the best taste in the cup.”
Ben overcomes these challenges by building strong relationships with suppliers and getting to know coffees from different regions.
“PNG origin coffee is a favourite of mine to work with. It roasts with consistent colour, size, and flavour. It’s robust earthy flavouor really works well as a base for bringing out the rich chocolate and nutty profiles we prefer. Both our Market Blend and Organic Blend feature PNG coffee for that reason.”
Consistency is important in a base coffee—but Ben says the true joy lies in discovery:
“Working with a new coffee, developing a roast profile that brings out its best, and uncovering new flavours and aroms and then seeing what results when combining them… that’s the magic.”
Benefits of Coffee Blends
Coffee blends offer several advantages for both cafés and home brewers:
Consistent Flavour All Year
Single origins vary by season, but blends maintain a stable flavour profile—so you can rely on the flavour being consistent every time you brew.
Balanced & Versatile
Blends offer smoother, more balanced flavours and perform beautifully across espresso, filter, and milk-based coffees.
Designed With Purpose
Whether you need a bold espresso blend or a bright, clean filter blend, coffee blends are crafted to suit specific brewing styles.
Greater Flavour Complexity
Using multiple origins allows us to build layers—chocolate, caramel, subtle berry—without overwhelming the palate.
Behind the Scenes: Market Blend & Home Blend
How we design a signature coffee blend
We asked Ben how he created two of our most loved blends:
Market Blend
“Market Blend was originally created for the previous owner of Eumundi Coffee. The brief included the origins they wanted—PNG, Colombia, and Tanzania—and the flavours their regulars enjoyed. From there, I tested individual coffees, played with roast profiles, and found the best combination.
The PNG coffee quickly became a favourite of mine to work with. The earthy quality of this bean, with sweet black tea and chocolate flavours, formed a great base. The Colombian and Tanzanian beans then completed the blend bringing our signature richness and hazelnut aroma. We exceeded expectations, and when we bought the cafe business shortly after, we knew we had a strong signature blend for our brand.”
Home Blend
“Home Blend is the reawakening of our very first roastery blend from 2018. It featured coffees from Ethiopia, Colombia, and Brazil and was awarded for being rich and full-bodied for both espresso and milk. That’s why we wanted to work with this blend again.
The current version uses beans from the same origins but different plantations. The resulting blend is more balanced and refined. The Ethiopian Sidamo in the Home Blend is just a really great single origin coffee; it has so much character and complexity to it. So much so we have it available as our current Limited Edition.
In the blend, it’s paired beautifully with the berry and caramel notes of the Colombian and Brazil coffee to give it that extra balance. As with every roast I develop I aim to highlight the best of each coffee, and we are just loving the results of this blend.
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