What Is Single Origin Coffee?
Single origin coffee, single estate coffee, Mircolot coffee, but what does it all mean? You might have heard these terms before or seen them in your local cafe, but what are they and what do they mean? In its simplest form, single origin coffee is coffee that is grown and shipped from one place, either from one country or one region within a country. Let's take a deeper look!
Have you heard your local barista or roastery mention Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee? This coffee comes from the Yirgacheffe region of Ethiopia. It's known for having complex fruit flavours and distinct tea like filter coffee. Above all, single origin coffee is about traceability within your coffee cup, it’s about knowing exactly where and who your coffee comes from.
What Is The Difference Between Single Origin Coffee & Coffee Blends?
The most common type of coffee drank in Australia are blends of coffee. Our Altura Coffee blends have been carefully crafted by our coffee roaster to create flavoursome coffees that taste great and and give you that burst of flavour with every sip. In a blend, there are 2 or more different coffees from alternate countries of origin. Each country's bean has its individual qualities and flavour profiles that contribute to the blends unique taste.
Blends such as our Tuscan Blend, make great espressos and they also slice through milk to create the delicious lattes and cappuccino we all love. Single origin coffee is different in that it truly represents where the coffee comes from. Its flavours are influenced by the country's climate, soil type, coffee plant species and processing method. This enables the coffee to have distinct and complex flavours. Enjoying single origin coffee, which you will often hear referred to as "singles" provides you with an opportunity to delve into the wide world of coffee, discover the distinctive flavors unique to each coffee-producing region, and support farmers' endeavors to cultivate and market superior coffee.
Why Is Single Origin Coffee More Expensive?
Single origin coffee tends to come at a premium compared to blended coffee because you're investing in the top-tier coffee lots carefully chosen by farmers. They meticulously cultivate, curate and select these coffee beans to attain the highest market value. Often, they engage in innovative processes and fermentations, which demand extra labor and effort.
The additional labor involved inevitably contributes to the overall cost. Single origin green coffee beans are assessed through a technique called cupping, a terminology employed by coffee aficionados to characterize their tasting and appraisal of coffee. The higher the coffee scores in these assessments, the greater its price becomes.
What Do Single Origins Taste Like?
Coffee has progressed extraordinarily over years, and we are lucky to have such a vast range of single origins coffees available! Each coffee has its own distinctive flavour profile. Take coffees originating from Kenya, they are fruity with rich berry flavours. Coffees from Nicaragua taste like luscious chocolate with a hint of spice. Others have a hit of citrus, bergamot, or orange. Geisha coffee from Panama often tastes floral and sweet. Whether you're using single origin coffee to make filter or espresso, with milk or without, there’s something to please every palate.
How Do I Choose Which Single Origin?
The journey into single origin coffee can be a rewarding experience. Experimentation is the key to finding some of the most outstanding coffee you will ever drink and exploring your favourite flavour profiles. Altura Coffee has created a single origin Tasting Pack, containing 3 different 250g single origins to get you started. Three mind-blowing coffee beans collide in a harmonious explosion of flavour, in convenient 250g resealable bags to start you on your journey through the origins.
Our website is frequently updated with our latest single origin drops and rotations, available as espresso or filter.
Drink up and enjoy!
