What do you get when you take two or more types of coffee beans and put them together?  A coffee blend! By combining different types of beans as well as adding flavors, a coffee professional can give coffee a more complex or balanced taste.

Coffee beans, whether Arabica or Robusta, can have very different tastes if they are from different regions. Some beans may have a good level of acidity but lack aroma, body or color. A blend may be made of up of two or ten different types of beans in varying quantities in order to get a good balanced blend.

Roasting is also part of blending, as beans can be heavily roasted to have a strong flavor or lightly roasted for a milder taste.

Coffee blends are often accentuated with flavors or other non-coffee ingredients. Coffee beans can be roasted with flavors such as vanilla or hazelnut causing the beans to take on a subtle hint of those ingredients.

Another way to blend in flavors is to add them during the brewing process.  This is something even amateur coffee enthusiasts can do from home.  You might experiment with adding spices such as nutmeg or adding different amounts of milk.

Coffee cuppers are coffee professionals who source and blend coffee beans to create unique and delicious coffee experiences.

Cuppers are well versed in the types of green coffee beans from around the world and have developed palates that can readily distinguish coffee characteristics such as acidity, flavor, body, aroma and aftertaste.

To evaluate their blends, cuppers use the coffee cupping method also known as coffee tasting. This is a complicated process which includes testing both green and roasted samples during and after the brewing process.  The time when the coffee is too hot to drink is the best time to test the aroma.  A cupper also tastes coffee at different temperatures to experience the full range of flavors.

Because coffee tastes around the world are so varied, it only makes sense that NESCAFÉ blends vary from country to country. We pride ourselves in catering to local tastes which can differ widely by region. In the Philippines, for instance, NESCAFÉ launched the Brown 'N Creamy variant, which contains muscovado (brown sugar) to cater to the Filipino palate. In Vietnam, NESCAFÉ CAFÉ VIET has the strong and bold taste that Vietnamese love. In Mexico, NESCAFÉ Caffe de Olla is a unique coffee mix with cinnamon and piloncillo (panela). And South Africans adore the fresh percolated taste and rich aroma of NESCAFÉ RICOFFY which is made from coffee beans, chicory and glucose.

So next time you are visiting another part of the world, check out the unique coffee blends that NESCAFÉ offers in that area. You might just find your new favorite blend!