Understanding Custom Blends

The development of specialty coffee blends provides craft roasteries with the opportunity to highlight the best coffees sourced from across the coffee belt region. In brief, a coffee blend combines two or more different origin coffee beans. For Vienna Coffee Company (VCC), this is also an opportunity to remain focused on our mission: 

To provide coffee that enriches the lives of customers and producers alike by providing an experience grounded in excellence and hospitality.

Our Thunderhead Espresso blend is a steadfast example. This signature blend consistently distinguishes itself, making it a core part of Vienna’s identity for the past thirteen years.  

Around 2005, the concept of Thunderhead came to fruition when VCC founder, John Clark, created a custom blend for one of his first wholesale customers, for whom sustainability and quality were paramount. In 2010, when Vienna Coffee House opened its doors, Thunderhead Espresso was the obvious choice for our signature blend as well as our top-selling Thunderhead Latte.

Tasting & Roast Profile

The welcoming, versatile taste profile of Thunderhead Espresso reveals notes of toasted marshmallow, chocolate, and almond that have been well-received by adoring fans throughout the years. Its 2015 Golden Bean Bronze Medal also attests to the quality this blend brings to the table.  

Through the years, we have ensured Thunderhead’s superior roast and taste profile remain consistent. As with all VCC coffees, sourcing from coffee farms with sustainable practices is also essential to Thunderhead’s stellar reputation. Initially, coffees sourced with an organic certification helped us ensure our supply chain provided great coffees with farm practices in line with our mission. However, with time, our direct relationships with several coffee growers revealed a superior route to enriching our coffee offerings while supporting and enriching the originating farms as well.  

A Relationship Coffee

A prime example of this reciprocal dynamic is a relationship formed in 2013 with San Jeronimo Miramar, a family-owned coffee farm in the Atitlan region of Guatemala. For four generations, the Bressani family have worked diligently to preserve their land and its resources to produce quality commodities. The intention behind their regenerative farming practices is greater than what an organic certification would require. They are committed to treating the environment, in which they work, with the utmost care.

Forming relationships that create an equitable union, like ours with San Jeronimo Miramar, showcase the full circle difference a sustainable focus can make in the lives of those touching the coffee from bean to cup. 

However, for those who still seek a USDA Certified Organic blend…

We offer a heavenly blend known as Stone Church. The name comes from the mind of John Clark as he was creating a new coffee for his church, where he has been a life-long member.

Its roast profile delivers a medium body, like Thunderhead, and makes an equally delicious espresso or drip coffee! Its blend of buttery shortbread, dark fruits and delicate citrus not only sounds enticing, but tastes enticing. You can read more in-depth about this organic blend here.

No matter your preference, our objective is for all coffee enthusiasts to know that our craft coffees are carefully selected with the vision of responsible sourcing from seed to cup. Furthermore, we want each and every coffee to showcase the intention that goes into ensuring the sustainable practices in all of VCC’s interactions - whether that be economic, environmental, or relational.

AT VIENNA COFFEE COMPANY…

Our dedication to ensuring that we are a market leader in craft coffee throughout the southeast dictates that we apply the same critical scrutiny used for our complete coffee lineup to any product we offer. 

This commitment demonstrates our continued pursuit to provide craft coffee that enriches the lives of customers and producers alike by providing an experience grounded in excellence and hospitality. We custom pick our green coffee beans from regions across The Coffee Belt and always seek responsible sourcing from seed to cup.

Our roasting team ensures each bean varietal is roasted according to its characteristics to enhance its peak flavors. Vienna Coffee Company goes further by evaluating each varietal harvest through coffee cuppings to evaluate and adjust its roasting profile.

Explore our complete line of coffees online or stop by the Coffee House and let our baristas do the brewing for you. We hope that exploring what we offer (whether its organic, single-origin, a VCC custom blend or your favorite flavored coffee) continues your journey in discovering that “Great Coffee is an Adventure”.