Just The Right Blend

Roasted coffee beans! They can be left lightly roasted or flamed to a darker balance. But how do coffee creators develop special blends? Roasters blend different varieties of beans to combine the characteristics and create their own signature coffees.

Take the roasters at Peets Coffee, http://www.peets.com, for example. Their Garuda Blend ® is "a full-bodied blend of coffees from the Indonesian islands; nutty, aromatic, and slightly earthy". Peets Major Dickason's Blend® is their "most famous blend combining the best coffees from the world's premier coffee-growing regions. Very full-bodied, complex, rich, and smooth". They also boast of their Sulawesi-Kalosi: a rare coffee with unusual depth and complexity; rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

A coffee that I've become fond of is Caribou Coffee, roasted in Minneapolis, Minnesota, http://www.caribou-coffee.com/. A few of their signature blends include:

Fireside Evening Blend: "Perfect with dessert ­ in fact, this blend can be dessert! The medium roast brings out the best from this combination of coffees from the Americas, New Guinea, and a hint of rare Ethiopian coffee called Harrar. This fragrant brew starts with silky, syrupy notes and ends with a smoky berry flourish."

Mocha Java Blend: "Though most people associate Mocha with chocolate, the Mocha in this blend refers to the ancient port city in Yemen where 17th century European traders bought coffee. These sea-faring adventurers also purchased coffee from the island of Java. When they found their way back to the ports of Europe, the coffee beans from Mocha and Java were unloaded, blended and sold. Hence the name of the world's first coffee blend!"

Costa Rica Conquistador: "Grown in a subregion of the Tarrazu coffee growing region of Costa Rica called Dota, this coffee is gutsy and bold just like its namesake: the Spanish Conquistador. Dota is the name of the cooperatively owned beneficio where the region's coffee is processed."

Rainforest Blend: "This 100% organic, bird-friendly coffee is grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, under a lofty canopy of shade trees. With these certified organic farms scattered across Papua New Guinea, Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico, you're sure to be helping a critter that's special to your heart. So sit back, sip that morning cup and enjoy the fruity medley, pecan and Brazil nut tone playing against a dark backdrop."

The roasts from a gourmet roaster are actually blends using different beans in different combinations to make their roasts distinct from the competition's specialties. Nutty? Complex? Full-bodied? Earthy? Spicy? You choose! The coffee roasters will take note and thank you.

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