Typical conversation between coffee expert and consumer:
“What kind of coffee do you like?”
“Good coffee.”
That’s one of the worst answers we get when we ask someone what they’re looking for in the cup. Really, what does “good” mean?
Think about that for a moment. What’s the ideal cup of coffee for you?
For one person, it may be a deep chocolate taste with a hint of hazelnut. For another, it’s going to be a refreshingly high acidity and a strong orange bite.
Some people like the muddy richness of a French Press, while others praise the clean crispness they get from a Chemex.
Where do coffee flavors come from? And what is good coffee? “Good” in coffee can embrace a wide range of flavors (as well as other characteristics).
Let’s talk about where those coffee flavors come from.
Knowing where coffee flavors come from will also help you choose the best coffees when faced with descriptions on the bag or on a coffee website.
If you’re in the coffee industry, this knowledge will help you understand your roaster or coffee importer when they go on and on about flavor notes and roasting profiles.
Let’s start with how we perceive flavor, and then we’ll get into what creates those flavors in coffee.
If you want to learn to evaluate and discuss coffee quality the way professional coffee tasters do, check out our online course Taste Coffee like a Pro.
How do we perceive coffee flavors?
Flavor is not actually what’s on your tongue – detecting flavor involves your sense of smell. Why is that so? Because your tongue has a limited ability to pick up on flavors. It sticks to sweet, salt, sour, bitter and savory (umami). That’s it.
So when you bite into that luscious chocolate-covered strawberry, your tongue doesn’t actually delight in the delicate taste of strawberry or the deep richness of the chocolate. It’s your nose, working together with your tongue.
Fact: Your tastes buds detect those main tastes – sweet, salty, sour, bitter – all over your tongue, and not just in certain areas, as was once thought.
This gets complicated when you take into account that everyone’s sense of smell is different. Some people are hyper-sensitive to subtle smells, and some can barely get beyond the basics. And some people’s sense of smell is highly developed due to training – think chefs, sommeliers – while others have never in their lives tried to connect a smell to a flavor.
TIP: What can you do to increase your sense of smell when tasting coffee? Try to cleanse your palate with water just after tasting a coffee, which will remove the taste sensations and leave just the aromatics that you should be focusing on.
Where do the coffee flavors come from?
There are many factors that affect the flavors in coffee, which is probably why most people only have a vague idea of where those flavors originate.
These main factors are geography, varieties, processing, chemical compounds, roasting, and brewing. (We say main factors because there are more! But we’ll focus on the basics here).
Geography
Latitude, altitude, soil, rain and sun, and shade all affect the flavors in coffee. Those circumstances will affect the sweetness, brightness, complexity, citric acid, and protein levels in coffee.
Species and varieties
Do the species and varieties change the tastes in the cup? Well, if you’re drinking low-grade coffee, they probably won’t.
However, when drinking higher-quality coffee you’ll be able to detect many differences based on the variety.
If you want to learn to evaluate and discuss coffee quality the way professional coffee tasters do, check out our online course Taste Coffee like a Pro.
Chemical compounds and acids
Non-volatile compounds in coffee, including naturally occurring acids, change the flavors in the cup. They can give coffee fruit flavors or a characteristic called brightness, which is highly prized by coffee experts.
How the coffee is processed
There are three main ways to process coffee: washed, natural or semi-washed. Each changes the characteristics of coffee, producing balanced and smooth coffees or bright and fruity ones.
Roasting
How does roasting change the flavors and characteristics of coffee? Roasting affects acidity, bitterness, body, and sweetness. Roasts vary from light to very dark, and can produce anything from a smooth and mild drink to a bright coffee with complex flavors to a hearty cup.
Brewing Methods
Which brewing method you use changes the tastes, often drastically. All brewing methods vary ratio (amount of water to amount of coffee), grind size, extraction time, and water temperature to produce different results.
Continue your coffee education
This is just a quick overview of where the flavors in coffee come from. If you would like to learn more about coffee in Latin America, check out our free articles on coffee.
If you need to go beyond the basics, Karen Attman, coffee professor and author, has online courses that can help you learn the fundamentals of coffee in record time. To get an idea of what’s involved with growing and processing coffee, check out From Coffee Plant to Your Coffee Cup. If you want to learn to evaluate and discuss coffee quality the way professional coffee tasters do, check out Taste Coffee like a Pro.
If you’re in the coffee industry, contact us about our in-person or online Specialty Coffee Pro Workshop.
Do you have any questions about coffee in Colombia? Get in touch with Karen using the nifty contact form below.
