Intentionally flavouring your coffee is common to the point that its expected. Additions like milks and syrups are more common, while various trends have also started to add in fruit juices and fruit slices to their coffees like Espresso Romano which is essentially coffee with lemon juice. Flavours can be added to coffee before, during or after the roasting process. It can also be added during grinding brewing and even while serving. So, what’s this new trend going around of Infused Coffee? and how is it different to other flavoured coffees?
First off, lets understand what the different ways are to infuse and flavour Coffees.
Flavoured Coffees
Flavoured coffees are made by adding essential oils and additives in the coffee before or after roasting. This could be in the form of syrups and flavourings added during or after the roasting process after which they are put in a mixer to make sure they are thoroughly coated. Flavoured goes more towards artificial flavourings and additives added usually after roasting. The most traditional way is to flavour coffee was to add spices while grinding or brewing like traditional Arabic coffees or Turkish coffees - our Turkish coffee with cardamom series is a good example of this. This can be done during roasting, after roasting and after grinding to achieve the desired flavours. Many roasters use the after roasting method where the beans are coated in the flavourings by tumbling them in a mixer.
While debates over transparency of the flavour components is still going on, this method is a great way to create unique and fun flavours which adds value to the coffee.
Barrel Aged
We have also heard of coffees that are barrel aged, a good example is our Vietnam Barrel Aged which has oak wood notes from the barrel. Barrel aged is a process where the green beans are stored in a wooden barrel that may or may not have housed a spirit beforehand. After roasting, this process brings out the oak wood notes and the woodiness of the barrel. This process creates a very strong and intense coffee that has unique taste notes and offers the consumer a unique coffee drinking experience.
Infused Coffees
Infused Coffees is a more recent trend that is still highly debated in the coffee world. While there are many definitions for Infused coffees, we believe an infused coffee to be a batch of green beans that were kept with other ingredients like fruits, spices and herbs during the fermentation stage. This requires significant control of the fermentation process so as to not spoil the batch. The goal with this method is to enhance the coffee’s original flavour and not overpower it. Processes like co-fermentation are used to facilitate flavours with natural ingredients like fruits such as passion fruit, like our Colombia Maracuya, citrus like lemon or orange, spices like cinnamon and cardamom like our, Colombia Mariposa; and berries like our Colombia Satinberry as well to impart their flavours to their coffee batches make unique coffee that appeal to their customers.
During the fermentation stage of the coffee green beans the fruits are added to impart their flavours to the coffee beans. The fermentation bacteria or yeast uses the fruits as fuel and as a result byproducts such as CO2 and affects the flavour of the coffee, this process is also known as co-fermentation. Infusing coffees is a time-consuming process and highly unique as the batch may be different from each other depending on the season and the taste and quality of the fruits used in during processing.
While coffee infusions and flavourings are usually looked down upon in the specialty coffee world, we believe it a great way to introduce coffee innovations and new methods which provide consumers with unique coffee experiences. Experiment with infused coffees with Flava’s Infused Coffee Exhibit.
