Why changing our Awakening Blend recipe is important for us and our customers…

Playing with a winning formula of course can be a dangerous mission. Why change something that works well? Why potentially upset some loyal customers?

Our The Awakening blend has been with us since I started Jones Brothers Coffee in 2013. I designed it to be a smooth and easy drinking blend for all types of coffee at all times of the day. And other than a couple of tweaks here and there, it has remained relatively unchanged and a popular choice for all of the last 5 years.

But I realized earlier this year that just because something is good, doesn’t mean it couldn’t be better. Having developed more coffees over the last few years, I decide that The Awakening blend was no longer distinct enough from some of our other coffees. And that’s a problem for me. Designing coffees that can stand as individual drinks, appeal to different parts of our palate and be easy enough for lots of people to enjoy it has been one of our core mantras since we began life in Amsterdam. It’s not just about standing out from the rest of the crowd, but also finding a place and a role within our own range.

So let me tell you about the NEW Awakening…

Firstly I have reduced the number of origins from 3 to 2 and changed the blend to a Mexico:Honduras. Both of these beans are fully washed when they are processed at the farm level, so that all the red berry fruit pulp is removed.

And perhaps equally as important, we now roast this slightly lighter than before to medium roast, rather than the previous medium-dark profile. And as any knowledgeable coffee person will tell you, this increases the flavour possibilities in the drink quite substantially.

What does this mean for the drink?

Well, it retains elements of its original punchy floral aroma but now with the subtle hints of tropical fruits from the Honduras bean. A firm body, silky mouthfeel and light almond biscuit hints from the Mexico coffee help create more complex flavours that cover all of the palate. We now have a coffee with crisp lemon citrus notes, a creamier texture with medium acidity and a medium body that is delicious as expresso and beautiful with milk.

Darker roasted coffees are of course described as strong and generally full bodied and display flavours of chocolate and caramel sweetness. And a lot of people look for these elements in their coffee. You can test this theory by trying our Italian Lover coffee for example. But ‘strength’ is a difficult word to understand in coffee terms. When we roast coffees slightly less dark, we achieve ‘strength’ through flavour – natural flavours that the bean has taken on during it’s time in the sun, rain, wind and soil – all contributing factors to creating distinctive flavour possibilities. A lighter roast gives the bean the chance to display these flavours to the full. And we like this.

So, introducing NEW Awakening – a great coffee no matter what time of the day – it’s smooth, tasty and well balanced. And very much an individual. We love it! And we think you will too.

Happy drinking!

Richard Jones & The Bean Team