I happened to stumble across this nice article written by Dal Anderson that I thought really clarified the misconceptions of what exactly a "single origin" coffee is. Being in the coffee business there is a constant conversation that takes place as to what type of coffee is better, single origin coffee (coffee from a single farm) or a coffee blend (a coffee that can include a number of beans from around the world).
As a business person and marketeer of our coffee, it's really nice to work with coffee blends. Coffee blends can be a wonderful thing. For one, our blends remain relatively consistent. For example, our "Homestead's Own" and "Dead Man's Brew" has been remained on the shelves and in our brewers for a few years now. On the flip side a single origin bean can and will vary not only in taste but in availability as well. The simplicity of a single origin bean can sometimes be less chaotic on the taste buds which allows for a "certain amount of clarity in its taste."
(Re)Defining Single Origin
Single Origin Coffee - 2010: a selection of coffee beans from a single coffee farm, processed one way, and roasted with one roast profile.
The idea behind this definition is that you highlight the coffee as much as possible, and present a coffee with a certain amount of clarity in its taste. It could be a microlot, it could be a specific processing method, or it could be a general selection of beans from an entire 20 acre farm, but it is still, by (my) definition a Single Origin.
If the coffee is from a coop of several tightly business-connected farms, should it be called a Single Origin? I don't think so. If the coffee is roasted with different roast profiles and post blended, does that still follow the spirit of the concept of Single Origin? Many people think so (my boss does!), but since roast profiles can change the taste of almost any coffee I feel this takes away from the spirit and intent of Single Origin as a title and definition. If the goal of promoting Single Origin is to get consumers thinking about terroir, farmers, specific tastes, and growing practices, once you muddy up the taste with different roasting profiles, perhaps you lose the meaning.
For that, we could have:
Single Origin Roast Blended - 2010: a selection of coffee beans from a single coffee farm, processed one or multiple ways, roasted with multiple roast profiles.
This definition helps keep the spirit of promoting one farm's coffee but it also explores the taste potential of the coffee depending on how the green coffee was processed and how it was roasted. It could also help the public understand what we in the industry know very well: different processing affects the taste of coffee, and different roast profiles do the same.
Lastly, we could have
Single Origin, Roasted for Espresso - 2010 A selection of coffee beans from a single coffee farm, processed one or multiple ways, roasted with one or more roast profiles to be brewed as espresso.
A lot of our customers take our Single Origin coffees roasted for drip or French press and put them into their espresso machines. Some like the results, some do not. But we also roast some of these Single Origin coffees from time to time with a very precise profile for espresso brewing. In those cases, our customers find that coffee to be much more appropriate for the brewing method. This is something we debate often at the roastery. We wished more companies educated their customers on how roast profiles can be tailored for a specific brewing method and what works for one style of brewing may be detrimental for other methods.
Since Single Origin espresso is so popular right now, a little education with the buying public could go a long way. But perhaps that is another article.
Written by Dal Anderson for coffeegeek.com
