I have a love-hate...
relationship with flavor notes. In some ways they seem to be pretty helpful. Like a road map directing us in the right direction in picking coffees we'll likely enjoy. It seems like a pretty simple overall. Do You like fruity coffee? Look for fruit notes. Do you like chocolaty coffee? Look for chocolaty notes. But flavor notes within specialty coffee in the last few years have taken some interesting turns. Turns towards things that are pretty off the wall, or just super weird. For example things like fruity breakfast cereals, favorite childhood candies, and even things that have no real flavor to speak of.
As a roaster and a consumer this is a topic I've been on both sides of. Not only have I bought a coffee that tastes nothing like the notes on the label, but I've also had others say they didn't taste the notes I put on my own bags. But I think this is a topic not many coffee people have talked about publicly. So there is no better time than the present to open up a discussion. I've got a lot to say on this one. So in this video I'll dive into a few topics surrounding flavor notes. Things like, should we really expect to taste these wild notes? Are those off-the-wall notes just a marketing ploy? Should we as an industry move away from specific tasting notes all together? Maybe even another bonus topic or two.
So hit play on that video above, give it a watch, and let drop me some comments. I would love to hear for all of you about your thoughts on this one.