In order to answer this question firstly we need to take a close look at coffee as a commodity and then the history of how it has been marketed and sold. Green coffee beans are basically the processed seed from the coffee cherry, a type of fruit.

What we know about fruits is that they are seasonal. This is the case with coffee where you generally see one crop harvested per year. One of the best ways to harvest coffee is still by hand picking as this ensures the ripe cherries are only harvested leaving the unripe cherries on the tree to ripen. This ensures minimal wastage and maximum yield from the crop. In many countries where coffee is grown the labour is cheap so this method of harvesting is preferred over mechanical means. So what you essentially achieve from this method of harvesting is a number of picks throughout a season as the cherries ripen at different times. This results in varying levels of quality from the same crop throughout the season.

The easiest way to explain this is to draw comparisons from what we see from other fresh fruit products within the market. The first batch of fruit you generally see appear on the shelves at the beginning of the season is not usually as good as the fruit in the middle of the season and subsequently falls off in quality towards the end of the season. This is because as these fruits are picked more nutrients are delivered to the still ripening fruits. Towards the end of the season fewer nutrients are available and so you see a varying level of quality throughout a season.

This goes a long way to explaining why you can purchase coffee from the same origin and crop but with varying levels of cup quality throughout the season. Those maintaining a close relationship with the origin will not just rely on the coffee grading but will want to secure the best pickings from the season based on cup quality. These are just changes within the season itself.

If you then look from season to season there are many factors that can contribute to the quality of that crop. Weather patterns particularly play a big role in determining the quality from season to season. Weather affects temperatures, humidity, rainfall, and soil conditions. When dealing with a raw commodity like coffee you have good and bad crops. Any farmer will tell you that nothing is guaranteed in terms of quality from season to season as Mother Nature is a massive variable.

It is a well-documented fact that weather conditions have become more erratic from season to season due to global warming. This is having a substantial impact on crop consistency throughout the world. High quality Arabica coffee is growing in demand however it is a much more difficult variety to cultivate than the Robusta variety. Most companies are advertising Robusta free coffee. Even big companies like Nestle who buy a large percentage of the world coffee production are marketing 100% Arabica in their instant coffee products. The increase in demand for quality Arabica is putting a strain on the world’s production as ideal growing areas are actually declining with adverse climate change amongst other factors. If a roaster is using a blend with a base origin where the season’s crop quality or yield has been decimated by weather, disease or pest damage then they are forced to substitute another origin into that blend which can result in a change to character profile of that blend. No two coffees are exactly the same. The chemical structure of coffee is extremely complex so the chances of being able to get exactly the same character profile are almost impossible. So if we are not getting consistency at the origin then why should we expect it with the finished product?

I would like to draw on similarities between the wine and coffee industry. When comparing coffee to wine what we know is that coffee is much more complex with over three times the flavour compounds detected so far. Both are the by-products of fruits and both are processed to produce beverages. The wine industry, however, embraces the changes from season to season and will clearly label the origin and season on the bottle. The consumer expects a difference from vintage to vintage even though they know they are the grapes from the same vine. Yes there is a clear difference in the aging and storage of wine when compared to coffee but the consumer expectations are the root cause of headaches for the coffee market. The coffee consumer has been educated to expect product consistency of taste where the wine consumer hasn’t.

We can trace the origins of this education and behaviour back to a market that has grown up with highly processed instant coffee where it is a lot easier to achieve this. Having said this though, don’t under estimate how much the big instant coffee manufacturers invest on product quality and consistency. They have highly sophisticated labs and quality assurance procedures. The specialty coffee revolution is only just starting to make some inroads into changing consumer’s perception of coffee. The average consumer though still doesn’t appreciate and understand the complexity of coffee. The average café and end consumer identifies with the brand not the origin and this is where there is a big difference between wine and coffee.

The secret coffee blend recipe has been a great marketing tool for coffee companies. This has allowed coffee companies to build brands much like KFC with its secret herbs and spices. What wine companies have that most coffee companies don’t, is exclusivity over the raw product. Wine is generally produced where it is grown and harvested allowing wine companies to label the origins without risk of competitors having the same. Green Coffee is mostly traded on an open market with limited exclusivity leaving many roasters using the same origins. The coffee blend is the last line of defense for brand individualism.

So where do we go from here as an industry. Unfortunately, unless we educate the market to expect and enjoy the nuances of coffee the consumers’ expectations will not change in a hurry. If you are marketing a blend to a customer without educating them on the difficulties of achieving consistency then you are in effect making a promise you can’t keep. The cupping room is there to monitor consistency and quality but don’t under estimate the consumers ability to detect changes. A change for the better in the roasters view can be perceived as negative to a customer who is expecting the same. I haven’t even gone into the challenges of maintaining consistency in processing, transport, storage, roasting, grinding and extraction that all affects the result in the cup.

It would be a brave roaster to reveal the finer details of his blend to the market unless they had complete exclusivity on the green beans; however, we need to collectively provide further education and transparency to the consumer. Establishments selling and serving single origins are growing. These specialty roasteries and cafés are doing their part to educate the consumer. Largely the coffee consumer is a creature of habit consuming the same beverage day in day out. It is amazing to see what happens once they are aware of the options available.

Give the consumer choice and they will embrace it. I have seen many cafes open up their coffee menu boards with almost instant positive impacts to their turnover. Sure there is production, logistical and labour challenges to face with many segments to the market; however, specialty coffee has a story that originates from the coffee farm. The story is interesting whilst complex and without understanding can generate confusion and disappointment in the market.

I am a strong believer that the primary focus in specialty coffee production and supply should be consistency of quality not consistency of taste. Maintaining a consistent character profile to your blends is important if you market it that way but don’t expect to be able to achieve an exact replication of that blend. The variation is what makes the industry so dynamic and interesting.

There may be a few different interpretations going around of what Single Origin exactly is but I like to refer to is as coffee that comes from a single known geographical origin and more specifically a single farm. You can further break it down to Single Origin Micro Lot coffees which derive from a single field on a farm. Blended coffee on the other hand is a combination of different single origin coffees mixed together. Generally this is done to produce a better beverage than if the coffees were standalone but this is not always the sole intention and blending can be undertaken for a number of other reasons.

Let’s first look at the key reasons why a coffee roaster would blend coffee instead of just using Single Origins:

• To produce a better and more well rounded coffee by introducing other coffee origins to bolster weaker areas of the base coffee.
• To improve the profitability of the coffee offer. This shouldn’t always be seen as a negative by the consumer. Some cheaper coffees can be ordinary on their own but great when combined with other coffees that enhance that coffees weaker notes. Sure there are less noble reasons to improve profitability but let’s not focus on those. The Australian coffee market is highly milk based so in many instances the highly prised specialty coffee will not suit your flat white or cappuccino drinker. You can produce some lower cost blends that will suit your target market better than higher costs ones. This makes good business sense and is one of the main advantages to blending coffee.
• To spread the risk of quality and supply issues. By using multiple coffee origins in a blend there is less risk ongoing than if you were solely relying on the one origin for your coffee offer. Particularly coffee is seasonal and therefore subject to environmental changes, pest and disease. There are other factors that can affect supply, for example, political and economical.
• To improve the consistency of the coffee offer. The coffee you buy will vary throughout the season which presents the roaster with ongoing QA consistency issues. A blend allows the roasters to manipulate the recipe easier to ensure a more consistently good product. Skilled roasters are varying the origin percentages and profiles ongoing based mainly on sample cupping.
• As a clever marketing tool. The branding and packaging of the blend in a lot of instances is carefully targeted towards emotional cues of the consumer. In a lot of instances it is the ingeniously marketed blend that sells and not necessarily the best coffee. An example of this is the number of locally roasted coffees that have Italian names given to the blend to take advantage of the general consumers’ perception of Italian coffee. The blend can also be targeted towards a cup profile type such as Java and Mocha for example.

The single origin coffee offer is mainly driven by the demand of consumers for high quality coffees to be enjoyed in their purest form. It strips back a lot of the marketing innuendo of blends and mainly relies on the origin story and quality of the coffee to appease consumers. The majority of the blended coffees in the market are targeted towards the mainstream milk coffee consumer so roasters tend to focus on the caramelised and roast notes in cup character. These are amplified more towards the darker roast degree or commonly second crack in the roast process and beyond. The combination of these flavour notes, are more favourable to the majority of milk based coffee consumers in the market. The bright citric or fruit notes of a lighter roasted coffee don’t tend to blend well with milk. A lot of the high quality specialty coffees are mainly wet processed to produce a nice clean and crisp coffee but can lack the body required to make a pleasant milk based espresso. Most consumers won’t find citric or fruit notes coming through strongly in their flat white very pleasant. If you ask a consumer to describe their ideal flavour and texture notes for a milk based beverage you will almost always get chocolate, caramel, smooth or creamy.

The emergence and refining of different brewing methods has been a big instigator in the growth of single origin coffee offers in the market. Siphon, filter (various types), plunger, cold drip or cold press brewing methods are all great for highlighting the single origin flavour nuances. The growth is also obvious by the number of recent specialty coffee brokers who have entered the market. This is all well and good but what does it mean for the coffee roasters and coffee distribution business. It is easy to get caught up in the hype and I have seen many roasters launch into supplying single origins without any clear game plan of how to roast, position and market the offer. It is not as simple as just buying some high quality coffee, roasting it and then adding it you your price list. There is also the trap I have seen many of the micro roasters fall into where they start buying more expensive coffees to put in their blends thinking this will give them a competitive edge but instead ends up eroding margins for little or no gain in sales.

These are just some of the areas to consider for a roasting business when establishing its single origin coffee offer:

• Look for the incremental sales opportunity. Find out where you can position the offer to take advantage of incremental sales. You should not be just replacing current sales with a new offer as it may not be as profitable when you take into account the total fixed and variable costs of production and distribution. If you are cannibalising your own sales then you need to reposition the offer as roasting and selling Single Origin coffee may not be as cost effective (ie smaller batch roasting).
• Education of the retailer and consumer is vital. You must educate your customer base. If you are selling to a cafe then think about how they can best serve and educate their consumer. What brewing options do they have? Will they need extra grinders? How can it be displayed in store to create consumer interest? Do they understand the origin and have they done sufficient cupping of it to be able to sell it to the consumer? When you go into a restaurant you always feel more comfortable buying the more expensive wine if you feel confident of the waiter’s appraisal.
• Roast the coffee to suit the extraction type. There is no point offering high quality expensive single origins and roasting them dark. They will lose the origin character that they are prised for. Roasting a Cup of Excellence coffee dark for an Italian Style Espresso or to the degree that most would for a milk based espresso, would not take advantage of the origin character. This would be similar to cooking a high grade Wagyu steak to well done. Sure some consumers prefer this; however, you can use other Single Origin coffees without the expensive price tag that would suit better. You want to maximise the flavour character of the coffee so ideally you would encourage the use of straight espresso and the other brewing methods mentioned earlier. It is important to consider whether or not you want to make the roast degree too niche. Notably for instance, Siphon is roasted to a very light degree at which would be too acidic for espresso. Espresso is the easiest to implement at a cafe and would offer the more potential for incremental sales. Establishments with brew bars that offer a larger variety of extraction methods generally will roast onsite for flexibility of roast profiles.
• Choose in season coffees and always ask for samples from your supplier. The sampling and cupping of Single Origins is extremely important. Just because a coffee has a high price tag does not mean its cup character will appeal to your consumer. Don’t just rely on the brokers cupping notes, in most instances they are aimed at selling the coffee and usually read like the fresh section of your local supermarket. Initially the more important areas to take note from the broker’s info are: processing type, varietal, grading, screen size and any independent scoring of that lot. Use the rest as a guide and do your own cupping before committing to large quantities. Look for coffee with an agreeable level of acidity that is well balanced overall. High levels of acidity may be prized by some in the industry however the potential for sales will be small. Most consumers will prefer the sweeter fruit notes rather than the strong citric notes that some coffee possess. The skill of the roaster also comes into play when balancing the level of acidity in the coffee.
• The positioning and pricing of the Single Origin offer is important. There will be a difference between retail and wholesale offers. The price should be reflective of the quality of the product; however, people will only pay the extra money for it if they see value in it. For ideas on how to go about, this one only needs to look at wine industry and how they are able to command higher pricing for better quality vintage wines.
• You may need to restructure your roastery to be able to accommodate the smaller batch roasting. A lot of roasting plants will have a dedicated smaller batch roaster that will handle the Single Origin production.

These are just a few of the important areas to consider when developing and implementing your single origin offer. A close examination of a successful competitor in this area can also provide shortcuts to a better strategy; however, being able to establish a point of difference is what can bestow a competitive advantage. The coffee market is always evolving so coffee roasters need to plan for where the future demand will be. One thing is for sure, that the importance of Single Origin Specialty coffee will continue to grow.