What is the difference between a Blend and Single Origin coffee? I wanted to know the difference between blend and origin coffee.
Many of us continuously discuss origins on this site. I searched through the site, interestingly cannot find a short, precise definition.

Sometimes, variety is confused with single origin. So,  I would like to start with this.

Taxonomically, Coffea genus has several species and we consume three of them as the coffee drink. These three species have several varieties. They may be thought as varieties of dog from a biological perspective. Same species, several properties.

For coffee though, the variety is not the only criteria that affects the quality of a bean. Cultivation, climate, soil, irrigation, harvesting, drying and peeling the fruit from the bean,  drying the bean are all affect the bean quality. So, if you have a specific variety and also you can guarantee the region and the aforementioned process is stable for a batch of beans, you call them single origin beans.

Blends are "blends" of several single origin coffee beans to produce the flavor characteristics of more than one single origin coffee. For a recent related post on blends please check this: 


What are the basics of creating an espresso blend?