How to Taste and Choose the House Blend for Your Café

Written by Tiny Tiger Coffee

Your café opens in three weeks. On the counter sit three bags of coffee from three roasters, and every one of them says "chocolate, caramel, smooth". Your barista likes the first. Your partner likes the third. Nobody is sure why.

Which one becomes your house blend?

Step 1: Taste it in milk

This is the step most owners skip, and it matters most. Make a cappuccino with each coffee, using the same amount of a full cream milk such as Amul Gold. Our guide to the best milk for café coffee explains why.

Ask yourself:

• Can you still taste the coffee, or does the milk bury it?
• Is it sweet on its own, or does it need sugar?
• Does any bitterness come through at the end?

A coffee that's lovely as espresso can disappear under milk. If most of your orders are milk drinks, let the cappuccino decide.

Step 2: Cup your favourites

Cupping is how roasters compare coffees, and it takes about 20 minutes:

1. Grind 12 g of each coffee, medium-coarse, into its own cup or bowl.
2. Smell the dry grounds and note what you get.
3. Pour 200 ml of water just off the boil (about 93°C) over each.
4. Wait four minutes. Then push the crust of grounds aside with a spoon and smell again.
5. Skim off the foam, and let the cups cool for a few minutes.
6. Taste each with a spoon. Slurp, so the coffee spreads across your tongue.
7. Taste again as it cools. A good coffee stays pleasant as it cools; a weak one turns flat or sour.

Cupping shows you each coffee without a machine or milk in the way, so it is a good final check between your top two.

What to write down

Give each coffee a score from 1 to 5 on these:

• Sweetness: natural sweetness, without sugar
• Body: thin and watery, or round and full
• Bitterness and sourness: pleasant, or harsh
• Aftertaste: does it linger nicely, or leave a dry, ashy finish?
• In milk: does the coffee still come through?
• Ease: how easy was it to dial in?

Add the scores. If two coffees are close, taste them again the next morning.

Choosing, and what comes next

The winner should taste good in a cappuccino, be easy to dial in, and come from a supplier who can keep it tasting the same. Taste alone isn't enough if the next bag tastes different. Our guide to choosing a coffee supplier for your café lists the questions to ask.

This is where we can help. We grow, process and roast our own coffee at our estate in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, and we hold stock of everything we roast, so the coffee you choose today is the coffee you get next month.

If you want to become a B2B partner of Tiny Tiger

If you want to become a B2B partner of Tiny Tiger, order our paid Café Sampler of two to four café coffees, such as Caramel Espresso, Toasted Almond and Frozen Candy, roasted just for you. Run this tasting on your own machine, then message us on WhatsApp and we'll help you choose. Once you've chosen, your regular café orders of 5 kg or more ship free to metro cities within 3 working days, and take about 5 days elsewhere. Order a Café Sampler.

Common questions

How do I choose a house blend for my café?

Dial in two or three coffees blind on your own machine, taste each as a cappuccino, and cup your favourites. Choose the one that tastes best in milk, is easy to dial in, and stays consistent from bag to bag.

What is coffee cupping?

Cupping is a simple way to compare coffees: steep ground coffee in hot water, push the grounds aside after four minutes, and taste with a spoon as it cools.