Flavoured Coffee Beans

Whilst there are certainly coffee purists out there who advocate nothing but a certain, single-origin sourced bean, brewed with a certain gadget, probably involving thermometers at some point and definitely served black- because heaven forbid a touch of cream! - there's no denying that adding an extra ingredient to your cup once in a while can be a tasty change to your normal coffee routine. Nothing against purists; in my own way, I am one. It's just that I believe there is room for us all.

Flavouring coffee is not new by any means. Adding spices such as cinnamon and cardamom to coffee, either as part of the brewing process or to the brewed cup, dates back to the first coffee drinkers, the Arabs of what is now Yemen who, from the very beginning added a variety of spices. Hazelnut is another classic, the association of this flavour with coffee said to be linked to the drink Frangelico, a traditional Italian hazelnut-flavoured liqueur, which is served with coffee.

Adding certain flavours is fairly straightforward and easy to do at home, poke around in your kitchen and see what you can come up with. A drop or two of vanilla and a twist of orange peel or add a cardamon pod to your brew. Endless possibilities. The point being that playing around with coffee can be fun, and quite possibly seriously tasty.  

The flavoured coffee beans that we sell just take it to the next level.

To state the obvious, the type of bean used to make flavoured coffee greatly impacts the taste of the finished product. So..... you need to start with a good bean.

Ours are high quality arabica beans from Colombia. These are taken to a medium roast, allowed to cool a little but, whilst still warm, concentrated flavours are added and the beans rotated until all those extra flavours are properly absorbed into the beans.

The flavourings used are suggested by tradition, created by modern techniques. In understanding these techniques, you need to understand different flavouring methods.

Two methods are used. The first is a natural flavour, which means that the flavours are derived from the natural plant, the second is a nature identical flavour, which means that the flavour is comprised of exactly the same chemical structure as the naturally occurring flavour, but is synthesized artificially. So what you get are sugar-free, allergen-free, gluten-free, top quality coffee beans with your favourite flavour. 

Whether you go on to topping with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, dust with cinnamon and a side helping of Cornish shortbread is entirely up to you. That's the whole point. :)