A home for every coffee: How blends can reduce waste

High-quality blends have become a staple of specialty coffee shop menus and roasters’ offerings in recent years. They have even made their way into prestigious competitions like the World Barista Championship, where competitors use them to showcase novel, layered sensory profiles.

As specialty coffee has shifted its perception of blends, there has been a growing appreciation of how they offer a product “better than the sum of its parts”. By combining high-quality coffees at the right ratios, roasters can create a truly unique flavour experience for consumers.

But blends also serve another important purpose that is easily overlooked. With a circular economy model integral to the values of the industry, blends give roasters and producers an opportunity to not only develop premium products but also reduce waste.

I spoke to Marc-Alexandre Emond-Boisjoly, the founder of 94 Celcius, David Gonzalez, a partner at Macarena Café, and Wilton Benitez, a producer at Granja Paraiso 92, to find out more.

You may also like our article on how blends can be intellectual property for roasters.

Why sorting coffee is vital to maintaining quality

To sell consistently high-quality coffee, producers must meticulously sort cherries. After harvesting (either by hand or mechanically, depending on the country and size of the farm), producers separate cherries according to factors such as size, density, colour, and ripeness. 

Once they depulp the cherries, farmers will sort the green coffee beans. Producers will often use density sorters and gravity separators to distinguish between high-density and low-density beans. Denser beans are typically considered to be higher quality, and therefore often sell for higher prices.

Finally, farmers sort green beans by colour to remove any defective beans – either by hand or using sensor machines. This step is crucial to ensure coffee meets specialty-grade standards (i.e. at least 80 on the 100-point Specialty Coffee Association scale).

Sorting is an essential part of maintaining coffee quality, but it inevitably creates waste in the supply chain. A UC Davis case study of farms in Central America found during wet and dry milling, an average of nearly 23% of parchment coffee is non-export quality. This coffee is usually sold in the domestic market at a lower price, which means producers essentially retain less value.

The study also found an average 8% of the initial coffee harvest mass is lost during sorting. Although it’s a necessary step in the supply chain, sorting creates a significant waste stream. To capitalise on this, some producers are finding “new homes” for beans which don’t pass strict quality control checks.

How blends can help minimise waste on coffee farms

Sustainability has become a tenet of specialty coffee, so reducing waste across the supply chain has never been more important. To reduce their environmental impact, coffee farmers are finding new and innovative ways to reuse and upcycle high-quality coffee which doesn’t meet stringent quality criteria.

Wilton Benitez is a renowned Colombian producer at Granja Paraiso 92. He says that instead of considering these beans as “imperfect”, we can instead view them as “exotic” to add more value to the product.

Typically, these coffees are mixed with lower-quality coffee and sold as commercial lots, which means farmers receive lower prices. Not only does this impact producers’ bottom lines, but it also means consumers aren’t able to experience the unique flavour profiles of these beans.

David Gonzalez is a partner at Macarena Café, which works closely with Wilton. He explains that quality control checks at Granja Paraiso 92 are rigorous. For instance, green beans that are marginally smaller, not completely uniform in colour, or have minor insect damage are removed from the lot, even if there is negligible impact on the final cup profile. 

“Many of the beans that are removed during the strict sorting process still have excellent sensory characteristics and attributes,” he tells me.

Finding a home for “imperfect” beans

To find a market for these coffees and retain more value at origin, 94 Celcius – a micro roaster in Montreal, Canada – works with Granja Paraiso 92 and Macarena Café to develop the Packed blend. Although exact varieties and processing methods can vary depending on available coffee, the blend has previously included high-end varieties like Castillo, Sidra, and Gesha, allowing consumers to experience exceptional quality and flavour attributes.

Marc-Alexandre Emond-Boisjoly is the founder of 94 Celcius. He explains that blending coffees which don’t meet stringent criteria can also help roasters to reduce waste and costs, thereby benefitting the wider supply chain.

“It’s understandable that producers don’t want to discard all their defective beans,” he says. “In fact, identifying some visual defects before roasting can be quite challenging. 

“But for roasters, this comes at a cost. We dedicate time and effort to meticulously sort defective beans, either by hand or with advanced laser sorting machines,” he adds. “Every defective bean removed represents a loss, as producers can no longer sell these beans. This not only reduces the yield from each batch but also raises operational costs, which directly impacts profitability.”

Collaboration is key to retaining value

Although producers and roasters can’t reuse or rehome all beans that don’t pass strict quality control, there are clear opportunities to be creative and market these high-quality coffees in unique ways.

Wilton has been analysing his coffee for more than eight years to better understand how bean size and colour impact quality and flavour.

“Does the fact that the beans are smaller, or are reddish or yellow in colour, mean there’s a sensory defect? ​​Of course not,” he says. “When we conducted a sensory analysis, we realised that we were selling these coffees as defective, but in reality, they had different but desirable flavour characteristics.

“We must work together: producers, exporters, importers, roasters, baristas, tasters, educators, and researchers,” he adds. “It’s the only way to support the growth of the industry by understanding all the steps in the supply chain and creating a feedback loop.”

He also emphasises that collaboration is particularly important because many “defective” beans are only identified after milling, so exporters and roasters need to communicate and work with producers to market these coffees separately. 

Finding value in unexpected places

Marc-Alexandre explains how 94 Celcius works with Wilton and Macarena Café to achieve this value addition.

“Initially, we wouldn’t have requested a sample of this coffee, as Macarena listed it as a ‘cheap’ coffee meant for blending,” he says. “However, during a cupping session, we tasted a cup profile that was truly exceptional – far beyond what we expected from its description.”

He tells me then this resulted in a partnership between the three businesses to develop the Packed blend.

“We found that the coffee we tasted consists of beans that didn’t pass Wilton’s quality control – some had visual defects or were too small in size,” he says. “It felt like a win-win situation: Wilton could avoid selling these beans locally at lower prices, and we could introduce high-quality specialty coffee to new customers at an affordable price.

“In French, we call this coffee ‘Les Tassés’, which refers both to the way we tamp espresso and the leftover beans used in the blend,” he adds. 

Feedback is an essential part of the process

When dealing with coffees that don’t pass rigid quality control, producers and roasters will inevitably come across challenges, which means two-way communication is vital to achieve the best results.

“For the second harvest of the Packed blend, we need to work with Wilton to make some improvements,” Marc-Alexandre says. “While the blend is more affordable than our other coffees, we still want to maintain certain specialty coffee standards. In the first lot of leftover beans we received, there were a few unexpected objects, including full coffee cherries, that we wouldn’t want to end up in a grinder.

“To address this, Wilton took extra care to process and clean the leftover beans more thoroughly for the next batch,” he adds. “This collaboration allows us to continue offering an affordable specialty coffee that still meets our quality expectations, and we’re confident that each new harvest will maintain that level of excellence.”

What roasters need to know about creating “imperfect” blends

Compared to single origins, blends require a different approach to roasting. But when working with blends created specifically to reduce waste, roasters need to take a few key considerations into account to achieve the best results.

Marc-Alexandre says an omni roast works well for the Packed blend, which arrives at 94 Celcius’ roastery pre-mixed, so the varieties aren’t roasted separately.

“We use a similar roast profile for Wilton’s ‘visually perfect’ coffees,” he explains. “Our focus is on enhancing the floral and fruity notes, roasting light to preserve the natural characteristics. Each bag from this lot has its own unique characteristics, which makes it all the more exciting.”

Marketing these blends to consumers also demands a more thoughtful approach to challenge perceptions about beans that don’t adhere to strict quality standards.

“High-end specialty consumers are intrigued by these blends because they’re unconventional and different,” Marc-Alexandre says. “By selling beans typically considered ‘ugly’ or ‘imperfect’, we’re inviting people to challenge their assumptions about what specialty coffee can be. These are beans that wouldn’t usually make it onto our menu, but they still have a place in specialty coffee.”

Moreover, roasters can use these blends to offer a one-of-a-kind experience that is more accessible to many coffee drinkers – potentially helping them to bring in new customers.

“These blends allow consumers to experience high-quality coffee without pretension while also addressing the larger issue of reducing waste in the coffee industry,” he adds.

Retaining value in the supply chain

Promoting a circular economy has become a key focus in the coffee industry in recent years. Reducing and reusing waste is an essential part of this, but finding ways to retain value in the supply chain is also critical.

“It’s less about marking these blends as premium products to sell for a higher price and more about accessibility and building a relationship of trust between roasters, producers, and consumers,” Marc-Alexandre says. “We purchase Wilton’s premium coffees, along with a variety of different offerings, so supporting him by also buying his more affordable blends is more of a holistic approach.”

Blends like 94 Celcius’ Packed also help to raise and reshape consumer awareness of coffee quality. “The biggest gap in specialty coffee is education, which is why we must work very hard to close it,” Wilton says. He adds that he hopes to change assumptions that visually imperfect beans don’t always signal lower quality.

“Producers benefit from selling these blends as they can differentiate themselves in the market and diversify revenue,” David explains. “The producer can give coffee that may have physical defects, but a very high cup quality, a second chance.”

Blends have never been so popular in specialty coffee, and for good reason. They allow roasters and producers to market their products in differentiated ways, and create flavour experiences often not possible with single origins alone.

But perhaps more importantly, blends also offer a way to reduce waste in the supply chain. By finding a place in the market for coffees sold in lower-quality lots, blends can help retain more value in the industry – benefitting both producers and roasters.

Enjoyed this? Then read our guide to roasting specialty coffee blends.

Photo credits: 94 Celcius, Macarena Café, Granja Paraiso 92

Perfect Daily Grind

Please note: 94 Celcius is a sponsor of Perfect Daily Grind.

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