BLENDS
Click here to read descriptions of Stockton Graham & Co.’s:
Light & Mild Blends
Medium Blends
Dark & Full Blends
Every coffee has its own unique flavor profile, the experience of scents and tastes that define and distinguish one varietal from another. There are many, many factors that influence the final flavor profile of a coffee, from what kind it it to where it was cultivated and how it was processed. Many coffees have some traits ion common and therefore have similar profiles – for example, Colombian coffees are identifiable and remarkably different from Kenyan coffees. Still, even a single origin coffee can turn out different from farm to farm and from year to year.
To complicate things even further, all coffee drinkers have their own tastes, and if you want to bring your coffee to as many people as possible, you have to appeal to as many tastes as possible. With so many different coffees to choose from and so many individual preferences to satisfy, finding just the right coffee to serve your customers can seem like an impossible task…but it doesn’t have to be. The solution is blended coffees.
THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF ANY BLEND ARE THE FLAVOR QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY OF TASTE
At Stockton Graham & Co., our roasting staff is intimately familiar with each of our coffee varietals. Not only do they know the full flavor profiles for every single origin coffee we have, they also understand how each varietal interacts with the others. This gives us the power to craft perfect coffees by choosing the specific characteristic we want from our varietals. Those blends combine the signature traits of several single origins, resulting in exotic tastes that can’t be found in coffees from any one country – every cup is a journey across borders. Our blends can put you in the Nicaraguan rain forests and the Kenyan highlands at once, all in one sip
A tour of nations hits the highlights, but stay in a single country reveals even more of the color and culture to be found in foreign lands. The same philosophy applies to our blended coffees. There are many blends of varietals, but many blends can also come from the same country – even the same farm! As our roasting staff can tell you, there are subtleties in every single bean that emerge at different roast levels. Blending beans roasted at different levels uncovers those subtleties, painting a fuller picture of what a single origin coffee has to offer, like the crisp acidity of a lightly roasted Brazilian coffee combined with the deep aroma of a darker roast. With the right blend, you don’t have to sacrifice all the things you like about one roast fro another – you can have your coffee and drink it, too.
WHILE RECIPES CAN PROVIDE A REFERENCE POINT FOR CREATING BLENDS, MANY VARIABLES CAN SUBTLY IMPACT A BLENDS TASTE. FOR THIS REASON, BLENDS MUST CONSTANTLY BE TESTED FOR QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY.
Blends give us a lot of versatility, but we also rely on them for ensuring consistency in the coffees we offer. As stated earlier, the flavor of a coffee is influenced by many variables; the altitude at which the bans are cultivated, soil composition, the amount of rainfall received in the growing seasons, what processes are used in removing the fruit from the coffee…it’s a lot to keep track of, and some of those elements are impossible to control. But the good news is that what affects the flavor of a coffee the most is how it’s roasted. Our roasting facility gives our staff fine control over every aspect of the roasting process. Sophisticated computer technology allows them to apply digital precision to their understanding of the are of roasting. Combined with their knowledge of our varietals, we can compensate for changes in the flavor profiles of every coffee we offer, so you never have to worry about a new crop skewing the flavor of your favorite blend. Our roasting staff regularly cups our coffees to guarantee that you get the same great taste with every pot.
Relaxing with a cup of specialty coffee is a small pleasure, though that relaxation also comes with a kick – caffeine. It’s good for a boost when you need it, but some people don’t enjoy the caffeine buzz, and some can’t consume caffeine for health reasons. So what do you do for those customers?
Well, you’re in luck. All of our great-tasting regular blends are also available in decaffeinated versions. Each decaffeinated blend is made from the same beans as the regular blends – they’ve just gone through the decaffeination process, so you’re left with the stimulating flavor and aroma without the stimulant! None of your customers have to go without knowing the pleasure of sipping a fresh cup of Stockton’s Breakfast Blend or Carolina Morning!
Every blend starts with a clear purpose. With this be a morning blend? An evening coffee? A house blend?
Once we have that vision of what will end up in the cup, it guides us through each step of the roasting process. Working on an espresso blend? The flavor of an espresso generally turns out better, more unified, when the varietals are roasted together. A solid drip-brewed pot of joe? Roasting each varietal separately will bring out more flavor from a drip-brewed coffee in the end. The same goes for every blend, whether it’s a breakfast blend, an espresso blend, or even a decaffeinated blend. And you can get directly involved by working with our roastmasters to come up with a signature blend unique to you store – you pick the destination, and we will be your guides. With the vast range of tastes available to you from all over the world, with all the art that goes into our craft roasting, there are many roads to take and trails to blaze, and getting there is half the fun.
BEANS ARE PRIMARILY BLENDED AFTER ROASTING. BLENDING BEFORE THE ROAST COULD CAUSE SOME OF THE SMALLER BEANS TO BURN WHEN MIXED WITH LARGER BEANS. ALSO, DIFFERENT CROPS REACH THEIR FLAVOR POTENTIAL AT DIFFERENT TIMES.
Find out by yourself how blended coffees can work for you and your customers. Give us a call at (800) 835-5943 today to get started. Our customer care associates are ready to answer your questions and introduce you to our wide selection of great-tasting blended coffees! Be sure to request samples of our most popular blends or whatever catches your eye in our catalog – exploration leads to discovery, and in this case that discovery could quite possibly be the best coffee you’ve ever tasted!
