When is mixing preferable? Before or after roasting ?
A blend is created either before or after mixing coffees. Creating a blend after roasting has an important advantage: flexibility. One can modify the composition of the blend after roasting. Also, one may want to mix coffees that have undergone a different degree of roasting (e.g. a dark coffee with a medium roasted coffee). Also, one may want to mix coffees with a very different behavior during roasting. The problem with the method above is that it is more tedious and requires a lot more time. For this reason, it is usually preferred to mix coffees before roasting.
Blends of Coffees Roasted to Different Degrees
An interesting way to create a blend is to roast the same coffee to varying degrees (e.g. blonde, medium, dark) and then mix the different coffees together. Coffees with a lower degree of roasting are lighter, usually with a higher degree of acidity, whereas dark ones have smoother, tasty notes with lower acidity. Coffees resulting from such blending can impress with their taste and complex character.
