S4: Episode 9: Maple-Bacon Flavoured Coffee Anyone?
This week we’re continuing our exploration of the fringes of the specialty coffee world as we dip our toes into the delightfully divisive world of flavoured coffee. Is adding syrup to your espresso a playful twist or a specialty coffee sin? From the coffee aficionado’s horror at artificial flavourings to the syrup-loving masses, we unpack why flavoured coffee stirs such strong opinions. You’ll learn how coffee gets flavoured, what it does to the taste and whether flavoured beans are ever a good idea. And in this week’s FACQ, I share my own (deeply questionable) experience with vanilla-flavoured coffee. Spoiler: it made a lasting impression, just not the kind you’d hope for.
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Hello and welcome to The Coffee Drinker’s Guide, a podcast for the coffee curious where I explore and explain the world of specialty coffee to make your daily coffee better and more satisfying.
I’m Angela Holder a coffee roaster and writer on a mission to fight back against bad coffee by giving you the knowledge you need to help you get good coffee and a happier (coffee) life in coffee-break sized episodes. So grab your coffee, pull up a chair and take a break…
This week's episode tackles the somewhat controversial topic in specialty circles of flavoured coffee…and later I’ll be revealing my experience of tasting a flavoured coffee so stay tuned for that…
Flavoured coffee: disdained by specialty coffee people for its artificial flavouring, yet enthusiastically embraced by the spiced pumpkin latte drinkers of the world. There is no denying that there is tension between the two camps, as anyone who has ever gone into a specialty coffee cafe and asked for a syrup to be added to their coffee will attest. Speaking as a specialty coffee person, it’s hard not to be snobby about flavoured coffee - I admit it. When your professional life is all about recognising and celebrating the intrinsic flavours in coffee which are the result and expression of its terroir and botanical variety adding some random flavour to it for fun seems sacrilegious. Like dropping some fruit into your glass of a rare vintage wine, its just not done. At the same time, I have to acknowledge that it is human to want to ‘jooge’ things up, experiment and play with flavours - and lets face it, not all coffee is specialty. So lets take a look at the different ways to flavour coffee, why its done and find out along the way if maple-bacon flavoured coffee is really a thing…
So firstly flavoured coffee and the brew
There are two ways to brew a flavoured coffee. The first is to use flavoured beans that have been treated with a flavouring by the roaster. This means you can use the beans to brew your coffee using whichever method you please, but if you are using whole beans be aware that their flavouring is likely to contaminate your grinder and any beans you grind after it. The second way is to use normal beans but flavour the drink by adding aromatic spices to the grounds or - more common in the west - to put a flavoured syrup into the drink. A syrup is a combination of a simple syrup made from sugar and water with a flavouring dissolved into it which may be natural or artificial in origin. This means the syrup sweetens the drink as well as adding the desired flavour to the coffee. Flavoured syrups are mostly used in espresso based drinks as they reduce the bitterness of the coffee and will mask any unpleasant flavours imparted by poorer quality beans used in cheap blends. This is why specialty cafes who really care about their coffee’s quality do not offer syrups as an option in their espresso drinks, in case you ever wondered!
Next flavoured coffee and the taste
The specific flavours promised in the tasting notes of a specialty coffee can admittedly be difficult to perceive in the coffee brewed from it. And I say this as someone who loves specialty coffee and does this for a living. So for the coffee drinking public buying flavoured beans or using a flavouring - whether that’s a syrup or by adding spices to the brew - will ensure that your coffee definitely has said flavour when you drink it. However in doing this the flavouring literally overwrites the intrinsic flavour of the coffee. Since flavouring compounds are purely aromatic, if you are interested, to get a sense of the intrinsic qualities of a flavoured coffee try holding your nose while tasting it. In this way you can focus on the basic taste of the coffee to get a sense of its acidity, sweetness and bitterness. Although, you know, good luck with that.
Finally flavoured coffee and the bean
The practice of adding flavours to coffee has been around for a long, long time - probably for as long as humans have been drinking coffee - and adding spices to coffee during brewing is part of many a country’s coffee culture. The practice of flavouring the beans themselves is something that is viewed less favourably, especially by specialty roasters, as historically it was used as a means of disguising bad flavours that come from the beans being old or defective, or both. The method of flavouring beans is simple. After the coffee is roasted and preferably while still warm, the beans are combined with a flavoured oil and agitated to ensure they are fully coated. Flavoured oils may contain natural flavouring but most commonly they are a cocktail of artificial flavours using the solvent propylene glycol to carry the flavour compounds. This is how you get maple-bacon flavoured coffee - and yes it is a thing. Though why anyone would want to drink bacon flavoured coffee is beyond me. As you may imagine, there is no point using the best specialty coffee, which has its own intrinsic flavour, for flavoured coffee. But flavouring can be a way to add value to run of the mill reasonable quality coffee, so these days it’s not necessarily a way to hide bad coffee. But how are you going to know?
And now its time for a Frequently Asked Coffee Question…
And this episode’s question is…
Have you ever tried flavoured coffee beans?
Yes. Although it wasn’t maple bacon flavoured. I’m not that mad. I was given a vanilla flavoured coffee as a gift and despite my reservations of course I had to try it. Thankfully it was pre-ground so I didn’t have to contaminate my grinder to brew a cup! The aroma of the coffee was so strong it overpowered the whole kitchen and lingered for several hours after brewing - though not in a pleasant way. To my surprise, unlike most amusingly flavoured teas, the vanilla flavour was powerful, tasting like the vanilla essence used in baking. It had a lingering vanilla aftertaste but I could also detect the alcohol base and a certain burnt-bitterness. Despite the powerful aroma the drink was unsatisfying and sadly the remaining coffee is destined to remain undrunk. Unless anyone wants to claim it…? It’s a bit old now…
Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coffee Drinker’s Guide and that was all about flavoured coffee and my own experience of it. What do you think of flavoured coffee and would you - or do you - drink it? I’d be interested to find out - you can let me know on Instagram @thecoffeedrinkersguide, email me at thecoffeedrinkersguide@gmail.com or leave me a text message using the link in the show notes. In the next episode we are taking time out to review a crucial yet often overlooked factor in the quality of your coffee’s flavour. You won’t want to miss this so be sure to hit follow if you haven’t already. Don’t forget my puzzle book Wordsearch For The Coffee Curious is out now, and the link is in the show notes to get your copy. If you love puzzles you’ll love this! It would also make a great gift for a coffee loving friend. Or you could share your favourite episode of the show with them. As always it really helps the show to grow if you rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts to help other coffee curious people find the show too. Thanks to my executive producer Viel Richardson at Lusona Publishing and Media Limited. You can find him at lusonapub.co.uk. Until next time I’m Angela Holder thanks for taking your coffee break with me - the best way to tackle life is one coffee at a time and here’s to better coffee!
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