Here’s a not-so-secret secret that’s worth sharing loud and proud: we love coffee blends. Let’s say it again with feeling, this time in bold: we love coffee blends! The time-honored tradition of artisan roasters selecting the finest coffee beans from around the world, then combining them together just so to create glorious flavor experiences. What’s not to love?
Single origins are great too, this isn’t an either/or binary kind of thing. But the single-origin has been given a lot of attention over the last few years, perhaps at the expense of the blend. We feel a healthy, well-rounded coffee habit makes room for both, especially when the roast in question is being managed by a high-caliber roasting company the likes of which we’re featuring here.
Today’s selection of blend makers has been pulled from our beloved partners in advertising—the coffee companies that support our daily work here at Sprudge, and who also happen to be some of the very best roasters in the world. For a complete list of advertisers check our right-hand side on this and every article. And to discover even more roasters near you, visit our #StillRoasting project and Sprudge Maps!
Amavida Coffee — Florida Sunrise Blend
Here in Portland, Oregon we long for a long weekend driving along Florida’s coast—stopping off at various cafes and curiosity shops along the way. In the meantime, we can brew a cup of Amavida Coffee’s Florida Sunrise Blend, take a sip, kick back with a reader and daydream about Florida’s Scenic Highway 30A.
Camber Coffee — Moonrise Blend
A luscious, delicious blend of naturally processed Colombian coffee and washed Honduras Santa Barbara. Camber notes they “particularly love this blend for espresso” but you’ll be just as happy brewing it up at home in your favorite brewer.
Counter Culture Coffee — Apollo
A longtime favorite at Sprudge, Apollo is an evolving blend of Ethiopian coffees, currently comprised of Worqa Chalbesa and Rafisa. If you love Ethiopian coffees, this is a particularly gorgeous expression of coffee’s birthplace.
One of our favorite names for a coffee blend, Mixtape is Dogwood’s ever-changing coffee combo “like one of the mixtapes you made for the person you really like-liked, but didn’t know very well.” Presently it’s a Brazil + Colombia combo, expertly roasted in Minneapolis by the team at Dogwood.
Pardon us for saying so, but we think Elixr’s Lunar Lander blend is—wait for it—out of this world. Here you’ll find coffees from Peru, Colombia and Ethiopia, combined for a “light and fruity” blend that tastes great with milk, or as espresso.
Equator Coffees — Wolf It Down
Here’s a good blend for a good cause, created in collaboration with Chef Tyler Florence. $3 from every purchase of Wolf It Down—featuring coffees from Sumatra, Kenya and Colombia—goes to benefit Restaurants Care, an organization supporting restaurant employees impacted by the pandemic.
Go Get Em Tiger — Minor Monuments
If you love a little milk in your coffee (and who can blame ya) GGET’s hero espresso blend, Minor Monuments, is the coffee you seek. You’ll get all kinds of sweet delicious caramel and chocolate flavors, all the more lovely when combined with steamed milk of your choosing. Now that’s good drinking.
Intelligentsia Coffee — Great Lakes Blend
Permit the team at Intelligentsia a bit of double entendre: Great Lakes blend nods to Intelli’s Chicago heritage, but the lakes in question are in fact Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and the rest of the African Great Lakes found throughout the Great Rift Valley. This coffee, sourced by famed Intelligentsia green buyer Geoff Watts, is comprised of coffees from Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi, offering a composed portrait of one of coffee’s most storied growing regions.
Joe Coffee Company — The Pause
Here’s another wonderful blend project that helps raise money for a good cause. $1 from every 12oz bag and $5 from every 5-pound bag will be donated to No Kid Hungry, a non-profit focused on youth food security around the country. Presently The Pause features a coffee from Ethiopia, but watch for changes to the blend in the weeks to come.
Olympia Coffee Roasting Company—Little Buddy
Little Buddy is the house blend for Olympia Coffee’s second flagship roastery and cafe, located in Tacoma, Washington, a city very near and dear to our hearts here at Sprudge. (Our founders grew up there!) With flavors of sweet berry, stone fruit, and chocolate this works perfectly at home as an espresso, and we especially like it as an Aeropress or French press.
This is a nice blend of Latin American coffees from the folks at Partners Coffee of New York City, with notes of caramel, poached pear, and “Jordan Almond” which—can we talk about how great that sounds as a tasting note? The Jordan almond, a combination of bitter and sweet meant to evoke the beauty of human life and often used as a wedding treat. I want to drink that.
What does it mean to have an anthem? Not a national anthem, mind you, but a personal anthem. What would yours be if you had to pick? For Pilot Coffee of Toronto, Anthem is a blend of lively, interesting, “adventurous” (their words) coffees from Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya, built to express juicy notes of cranberry and apricot. While definitely roasted with filter coffee in mind, I’d love to try this as one of these high volume espresso “coffee shots” that were briefly all the rage a few years ago.
Stumptown Coffee Roasters — Holler Mountain Blend
Here is a brief, true story about Stumptown’s Holler Mountain Blend. Earlier this month someone broke into my mom’s house—can you believe it!? In the middle of a pandemic. I went to go take care of everything with her, which meant staying at her house for a few nights (while still social distancing). She had no coffee in the house and I forgot to bring some with me, so I hit up the nice local grocery store and there it was: a bag of Stumptown Holler Mountain Blend, all caramel and citrus and browned butter tasting. I pre-ground it at the grocery store because that’s how my mom likes it, and you know what? It was really nice. We drank it every morning on my visit, and she loved it, and I did too.
Verve Coffee — Bronson French Roast
We couldn’t possibly do a blends guide without featuring at least one French Roast. This is not everyone’s cup of tea, er, coffee, but those who love a darker roast feel passionate about the subject, and it’s wonderful to be able to accommodate all tastes. Verve’s take on the style uses a blend of Colombian coffees to achieve notes of “fudge” and “molasses”. The user reviews on Verve’s website are kind of perfect for it: this blend “hits different”, achieving a lovely roasted character without tasting charbroiled. Get this for the French Roast lover in your family.
Each week of the Yes Plz subscription is a sequence of unknown delights: sometimes it’s a blend, sometimes it’s a single origin, but whatever they’re shipping is guaranteed to be delicious. Check out all their past offerings here—recent favorites at the Sprudge HQ have included 073, a combo of Peruvian and Colombian coffees, and 070, a seven (!) bean blend evoking old school memories.
