A note on tasting notes

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.

Tunnel City Coffee in Williamstown hosts summer show of landscape paintings

Art by Tracy Baker-White is on display at Tunnel City Coffee in Williamstown through September 2019.

Tunnel City Coffee in Williamstown, MA hosts local artist Tracy Baker-White for a summer show of landscape paintings through September 2019. For the last several years, Baker-White has focused on landscapes from New England and Ireland.

She writes: “It is humbling, really, to stand in a landscape and listen to the quiet… to understand the land, and its interaction with the human hands that have shaped it. My work explores the importance of landscapes in human consciousness.”

Baker-White paints with oil on linen or gessoed wood panels with an orange ground. She relishes the visual effect of complementary orange peeking through the green, blue and gray. She often works in a series, starting with small studies, then developing large scale pieces.

“I am always attracted to the tension between real and abstract shapes. Mark making has always been important to me, and my goal is to develop a rich surface that allows for depth, perspective, and fullness of form while retaining the character of marks.”

Baker-White’s summer landscape show runs through September 2019 and all work is available for purchase.

Words courtesy of Tracy Baker-White and Tunnel City Coffee/photo courtesy of Tracy Baker-White