Single Origin is the standard bearer for a movement among coffee explorers to taste and savour beans exclusively from a specific plantation (or microlot) without being blended with beans from elsewhere (as is the norm).

Coffee from a single origin.

Most wine drinkers like to know where the wine is from. They collect knowledge about vineyards and regions they are interested in.

Having said that the blends cafes use deliberately compose the sometimes narrow flavour profiles into something of an all-rounder. Something good with milk. Something with a strong body but then also perhaps some sweet floral notes in the after taste.

Plenty of coffee drinkers are drawn to explore interesting flavours such as they find in single origins (or “singles”) even though they may not be ideally balanced according to an every-day idea of “great coffee”.

For example, I’ve been tasting a few Indian coffees recently which sometimes feature a very lemony flavour.

It’s fun to taste, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.