As a coffee roaster, people frequently ask us if the tasting notes on the front of our coffee bags are flavors we add to the beans. These are not added flavors, but the characteristics we taste in each coffee after roasting. These descriptives act as a guide to help consumers decide which coffees to choose based on their personal taste preferences and what they can expect from a coffee. Some people like bright, fruity flavors, while others appreciate more chocolate and caramel notes in their coffee. These flavor notes can range considerably depending on factors like roasting temperature, the variety of coffee bean, and growing and processing methods, to name a few.
You will notice a lot of blackberry, chocolate and caramel notes in our darker roast coffees, such as Number 50, Guatemala, and Thunderbolt Blend, because dark roasting coffee brings out those deeper notes. Think of roasting coffee as you would cooking food. As you roast or sauté something, you begin to caramelize it and sweet natural flavors come to the surface. Cooking something too much will char it and the sweet flavors turn bitter. Light roasting coffee allows for more fruit and floral notes to remain in the final cup, as you will taste in our Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Red Line Blend.
Tasting notes can tell you what you might like in a cup of coffee, but they are not meant to deter you from trying something different. Flavors can be big and bold or extremely subtle, and these differences are what make coffee so exciting.