coffee bean flavoring(s)

Why not just use a good syrup after you brew the coffee. Something like a good Torani or other flavor added after you brew will give you the same (if not better) flavor than trying to add it to the bean after you roast it.

My 2 cents and worth every bit :-) John

Hey Ken. Flavorings for roasted beans (instead of brewed coffee) consist of two categories: natural spices and herbs, which are usually mixed in with ground coffee, or artificial liquids that are soaked into the whole beans. Which are you looking for?

As a side note, the artificial liquids don't usually impart a flavor, but are perfumes instead. The sense of smell, being a part of taste, makes you think that you're actually tasting chocolate. I tend to favor the natural course instead because of this, and also because some of the chemicals used for flavoring are ~nasty~. Like, required by law to take to a hazardous waste dump to throw out, nasty.

But, for either one, there are resources available, so let me know. I'll help out where I can.

Peter Allen

Hey Peter...

I've tried two (probably) artifical flavorings added to recently roasted beans from an outfit called U-roastem.com. There were no corporate names on the flavoring bottles, other than the supplier (u-roastem.com) and the flavoring's name. So to answer your question, I was looking for flavorings that would soak into the beans, probably in an hour or two. Any suggestion as where to purchase natural flavorings would be much appreciated.

thanks...Ken

Peter Allen wrote:

I'm not doing it at the moment, but I may repackage the ones I have for retail. At present, Cinnamon Danish, Hazlenut Supreme & French Vanilla. Personally, I don't like flavored coffee, but I keep a bit on hand for people can't be persuaded to appreciate the subtle nuances of our premium Origins. When I was a teen, I used to drop cinammon disks (hard candy) into my coffee instead of sugar. That was back in the days when I drank what my parents bought, Maxwell House, which, even though better in those days than these, still required a bit of something to make it palatable. Anyway, these are the propylene glycol based flavors. Add as soon as the beans are down to body temp at the rate of about 2.5% and shake rattle and stir. Go to

3% if you want to totally obliterate any hint of the underlying coffee. The elixer soaks into the beans, but still flavors up your grinder pretty good. In a coffee shop environment, there's almost always a separate grinder for flavors so's not to get the aromatics all over the "real" coffee.

It doesn't matter whether it's natural or artificial. Taste consists of sweet, sour, bitter, salt and the new fifth one represented by glutamates. All else is indeed smell... whether natural chocolate or artificial.

What chemicals are you talking about??? Propylene glycol is "pet safe antifreeze," classified GRAS (generally regarded as safe) by the FDA. Ethanol is the other commonly used solvent. Same stuff as what's in your gin or whiskey. Hey, instead of taking it to a hazardous waste dump, send it to me!

So... what are these new chemicals they're using now that I'm unaware of?