Why One Roaster Finally Embraced Blending: The Penrose Story

When the team behind the company mapped out its green-coffee purchasing approach, it put strong weight on building relationships that benefit both sides. One key method was giving customers a window into the people who grow and import the coffee. If a drinker connected with a certain cup, that connection came with context about what made it taste so good. The roaster's own job was to act as an engaged link between farmer and customer.

That sourcing philosophy fits naturally with single-origin offerings, and the company deliberately held off on blending until a convincing reason appeared. Blends were not viewed as inferior coffee; they were seen as puzzling recipes that muddied the path from seed to cup. On occasion, blending might have helped move older stock, but doing so would have undercut the commitment to transparency.

Roughly four to five months into operation, however, a clear gap emerged in what the company could offer wholesale accounts. The staff enjoyed tailoring a different single-origin espresso daily, yet few wholesale buyers shared that enthusiasm. More and more, requests came in for an espresso blend. It was a striking realization: for most of the coffee purchased by coffee bars, consistency—of flavor profile and of price—was the defining quality. As a barista, consistency had been the worker's own responsibility in the chain. Now, with part of the income resting on delivering what other baristas and shop owners envisioned and expected, consistency became something the wholesale roaster could help supply. Through active sourcing and careful roasting, quality and profile could be delivered at a stable price. Even so, the company did not feel prepared or inclined to build an espresso blend.

While our team was excited to dial in a different single-origin espresso every day, we had few wholesale customers willing to. The requests for an espresso blend started to multiply.

Penrose was the response: a line of single-origin coffees chosen to match a specific flavor profile—one that performs well on its own and with milk, and that stays consistent and easy to dial in day after day.

The company is now on its seventh Penrose iteration. Some versions delighted half the customer base while leaving the other half unhappy. Others pleased nearly everyone except the roaster itself. So the work continues, searching for balanced coffees that are simple to dial in, taste good solo, and combine well with milk.

Along the way, the team sampled a great deal of espresso from other roasters, both single origins and blends. Hometown from Sweet Bloom Coffee and Sweet Shop from Square Mile Coffee Roasters stand out as experiences that made the roaster question its resistance to blending. Increasingly, the sense grew that a strong house espresso could gain complexity and flavor range through blending—qualities the single-origin Penrose versions could not deliver. A single-origin espresso might be coaxed into a soft, full body with plenty of sweetness, but the desired flavor complexity stayed out of reach. When a coffee did show that complexity, body or ease of dialing in often fell short. It grew evident that other roasters leaned on blends to address these very problems.

In late spring of 2015, coffee was booked for the seventh Penrose version: a washed Guatemalan from Sereno with abundant sweetness and balanced acidity. About a month afterward, a natural-processed Honduran drew the attention of green buyer Andrew Timko. Andrew was also open to blending, so the two put together several options combining the natural Honduran with another washed Guatemalan. The trial blends turned out so well that Andrew took on the hard task of persuading the team to try blending on Penrose v7.

What came next was a series of sample-roast blends pairing the natural Honduran with Sereno at varying ratios. At last, the team produced espressos that were very sweet and balanced, full-bodied and complex.

We’ve never felt it was implicit to our identity to only offer single-origin coffee, we just needed to discover our own authentic reason to blend.

Penrose v7 will therefore mark the company's first blend. Offering only single-origin coffee was never treated as central to the company's identity; what was missing was an authentic reason of its own to blend. That choice brings a host of logistical hurdles. Blending must now be folded into production. Buying coffee for blends is also very difficult: reserving the right quantity is hard before a blend ratio is truly settled, which makes seasonal purchasing even trickier.

Going forward, the main Penrose component will likely be sourced with the same goal in mind—a versatile house espresso. Once that coffee is secured, the team will look for coffees that complement and lift it while also being available seasonally and transparently. Blending will continue only if it clearly adds quality to the cup.

As the company has grown, more opportunities like Penrose have appeared, particularly in restaurants and grocery, where a consistently priced coffee with a targeted profile can be as useful to a customer as a distinctive single-origin. Keeping the supply chain and producers visible will remain a challenge. The team also expects to meet assumptions that blends are neither seasonal nor intentional, but by staying transparent in its relationships, it believes those relationships will keep benefiting both sides.