Comments on: Flavored Coffee Beans

by: MikeFTrevino

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:07:43 +0000

I’ll agree that there will always be people who like flavored coffee even if they’ve tasted great coffee. It’s just kinda the way life, nature and people work. If you can think of it, someone likes it. I can think of many disgusting things that a sizeable chunk of the population like, it would call for Chris to edit my post describing some of these things, but with that you get my drift.
Are people wrong for liking things others think are disgusting, of course not. Should anyone have pander to those desires because “we have to give our customers what they want?” No.
If I do my job right there will be fewer and fewer flavored coffee drinkers. With proper roast and extraction there will be enough flavor in a black coffee to intrigue people. If I educate myself and the customers more, appreciation for the real flavors in coffee will win out.
I remember cupping a coffee (Yirgacheffe I believe), and thinking someone spiked my cup with blueberry syrup. It smelled so sweet and pungent, anyone would have thought the same. With coffee like that out there, we should all be trying to give the customers that, instead of faking it with spray-on flavors to cover up bad coffee.
I was going into multiple paragraphs of my being a snob, coffee being big and confusing, coffee and wine being similar, our duties as coffee ambassadors, blah blah blah. I started to bore myself. so I’ll leave you with this. Cafe X can serve flavored coffees and make a million bucks, but if I make a normal living off of serving those same people one of my coffees in which they can smell and taste some of the different notes, thus creating a passion for the true flavors that exsist in coffee, I’ll be happy.

by: Bill

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 23:05:55 +0000

You have to look at it from a business perspective. There is a good portion of the market who LOVE flavored coffee…and guess what…they can’t get it at starbucks. I notice that a lot of us industry ’snobs’ refuse to carry it due to its poor quality. Sometimes we have to give our customer what they want, not what we think they should have.

by: Austin

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:23:49 +0000

Does this fall in line with americans drinking coffee black. Maybe they want it black but with some flavor? I don’t really go for drip coffee in general but when i do flavored is not for me. My mom loves it though. Of course she also considers two days old reheated in the microwave to be fresh. (And she lives less than a 1/4 mile from the coffee shop!)

by: Jason

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:07:40 +0000

Flavored coffee is fine — as long as syrups are used after the brew! Also, there is a nice article in this months issue of Tea and Coffee.

..be bold

by: Steve

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 02:25:46 +0000

Normaly I would say……..”throw that trash in the garbage!” However, that may be what it takes for another to finally try coffee, if they already have it in their mind coffee tastes horrible. Still at that point, I think I would push them to try adding syrup first. Just an opinion though.