Blending
Achieving a consitent taste through variety
Green coffee beans
Like a fine champagne house, illycaffè believes in producing a single, unique, perfect blend of coffee for both brewed and espresso preparation. A single blend means that illy can always be counted upon to have the same consistent taste, cup after cup, year after year.
Because coffee is a natural product, its flavor and aroma tend to vary from crop to crop and from one geographical region to another. To achieve the same consistent taste in the final product, illy must blend different types of coffee together based on their individual characteristics, all the while adjusting the amounts of each type to achieve the desired balance and signature taste of the illy blend. The process takes great skill as well as finesse and it is as much art as it is science.
illycaffè blends its coffee before roasting to achieve the greatest homogeneity in taste and aroma. This is a more difficult process than blending after roasting, but it ensures a better quality coffee and affords greater control over the taste of the final blend. The illy blend is composed of the finest Arabica coffees handpicked from nine different growing regions around the world: a Brazilian base, making up over 50% to give the blend body and aroma, enriched with the sweetness and aromatic notes of washed African and Central American coffees.