What Makes an Award-Winning Coffee Blend?

Have you ever wondered what actually makes a coffee award-winning?

At Coffee Brothers, we're proud of our medal-winning brews, like our beloved Cyclone Blend and Premium Dragon Plum Blend 89+  – both picking up awards at the Golden Bean Awards and Australian International Coffee Awards.

But what truly sets an award-winning coffee blend apart from the rest? It's a question of passion, precision, and an unwavering commitment to quality at every step of the journey.

Let's pull back the curtain and reveal the key elements that transform green beans into a champion blend.

1. The Foundation: Exceptional Green Beans

Every award-winning blend begins long before the roasting process, right at the source. This is where the magic of "terroir" – the unique combination of soil, climate, and geography – truly shines.

• Diverse Origins: We meticulously select green beans from specific regions known for their distinctive characteristics.

• For our Cyclone Blend, we combine the vibrant complexity of Ethiopian Sidamo & Guji (known for their bright strawberry, berry, stone fruit, and jasmine aromas with a clean chocolate finish, and red fruit notes of apple, raspberry, citrus, and plum) with the balanced, chocolatey notes of Colombian Popayan (grown in the rich volcanic soil of the Andes). This thoughtful pairing creates layers of flavour that single-origin coffees often can't achieve alone.

• For our Premium Dragon Plum Blend 89+, we feature 80% Ethiopian Sidamo & Guji and 20% Colombian Popayan. While sharing origins with Cyclone, this blend offers a very different flavour profile. The Sidamo region brings an extraordinarily wide variety of coffee flavours, contributing notes of strawberry, berries, stone fruits, jasmine aroma, and chocolate with a clean finish. The Guji coffee bean adds more red fruits like apple and raspberry in both aroma and flavour, with hints of citrus and plum, truly making this a premium option. The Colombian Popayan, from the capital of Cauca region on the Popayán plateau at 1700masl, grows in the rich volcanic soil of the Andes and brings a balanced acidity with notes of chocolate milk and caramel.

• Quality & Traceability: Understanding the story behind the beans – how the farmers treat their plants, the processing methods, and the environmental conditions – is paramount. We seek out Grade 1, ethically sourced beans, ensuring their inherent goodness is preserved.

2. The Art & Science of Roasting

Once we have the perfect green beans, it's over to our roasters. Roasting is where the inherent flavours are awakened and developed. It's a delicate balance of art and science:

• Precision Control: Our master roasters meticulously monitor temperature and time, listening for the tell-tale "first crack" and navigating the "roasting perfection" curve. This precision ensures we bring out the best in each bean's flavour profile without overpowering its natural characteristics.

• Tailored Profiles: Different beans require different roasting approaches. We ensure each component of the blend is roasted to its optimal point before combining them, allowing their individual strengths to shine through.

3. The Blend Master's Touch: Harmony & Complexity

This is where the "blend" truly earns its name. Creating a winning blend isn't about mixing random beans; it's about crafting a symphony of flavours.

• Balance: An award-winning blend must be beautifully balanced. This means achieving harmony between acidity, sweetness, and body, ensuring no single characteristic overwhelms the others. Our Cyclone Blend, for example, delivers a big body that holds up beautifully in milk, while still offering those distinct "Toblerone-like" notes of chocolate, honey, and nuts. The Premium Dragon Plum Blend provides notes of brown sugar, red berries, and a unique rum body finish, perfect for both milk-based and black coffee.

• Complexity: Beyond balance, a great blend offers complexity – layers of flavour that reveal themselves with each sip. The interplay between the fruity Ethiopians and the rich Colombian creates a multi-dimensional experience in both our award-winning blends.

• Consistency: Award-winning blends are consistent. Customers can expect the same exceptional flavour profile every time they brew a cup, regardless of batch.

4. The Final Touch: Brewing & Calibration

Even the best coffee requires the right preparation to unlock its full potential.

• Roaster's Recipe: We develop specific recipes for our blends (like our in-house double ristretto for the Cyclone), guiding home brewers and baristas on how to achieve the best cup.

• Precision Brewing: For home users, understanding the importance of accurate dosing (weighing your coffee) and grind size, optimised for your machine (espresso, plunger, stovetop), ensures you're extracting the maximum flavour and honouring the work that went into the beans.

Experience the Gold Standard Yourself!

From the meticulous sourcing of exceptional green beans to the artful precision of our roasting and blending, every step is a testament to our dedication to quality. The result is an award-winning coffee blend that consistently delivers a superior cup.

Ready to taste the difference that passion and expertise make?

➡️ Shop our Award-Winning Blends today!