What Flavors Does Coffee Have? Comparison Between Colombian Strawberry-Flavored Coffee Beans and Sakura, Hangetsuya

Have you ever tried strawberry-flavored coffee? Many people are amazed by its prominent fruity flavor when they first encounter strawberry-flavored coffee. Everyone knows that coffee contains many flavors, believe it or not, the flavors in coffee are not limited to fruits and floral notes. Interested friends can look for the coffee flavor wheel to discover more unusual flavors.

Factors Influencing Coffee Flavor

Coffee is a plant, and like all plants, its flavor comes from multiple sources. The main factors include the following:

Soil Composition — Nutrient-rich soil is more likely to produce more delicious coffee than nutrient-poor soil. The more nutrients the coffee plant receives, the healthier it becomes, and coffee cherries bring more flavor to the coffee beans inside.

Climate — Weather patterns, including humidity, rain, and wind, help plants know when to flower, produce cherries, or enter dormancy. When plants receive a balanced annual cycle, they produce balanced cherries. When the climate becomes uncontrolled and causes plants to produce cherries too early or too late, the resulting coffee is less delicious.

Altitude — High-altitude coffee typically has brighter acidity than low-altitude coffee. Our brains often interpret this brightness as fruitiness and crispness.

Harvest — Cherries picked before ripening tend to produce coffee with a "green" (bad) flavor. Cherries picked when overripe tend to make the coffee taste fermented (bad again). Carefully selected cherries picked at the perfect time are balanced, vibrant, and delicious.

Processing — Controlled processing helps bring out balanced flavors. In particular, the natural process produces fruity flavors because the coffee beans dry in the cherry for days or even weeks, absorbing the sugary fruit pulp.

Roasting — Coffee roasted within the light to medium range typically has fruity flavors. However, if roasted darker, those fruity flavors decay and become bitter and carbonized. Since ultra-dark roasting was the standard before specialty coffee, it's no wonder that fruity coffee seems so novel and strange.

Fruit Flavor in Coffee

Fruit flavor is not just a taste that coffee enthusiasts concoct to make coffee more exotic or sophisticated.

FrontStreet Coffee would like to share two coffee beans with abundant strawberry flavor: FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Moon Night and FrontStreet Coffee's Sakura. Both coffees come from Colombia. Although both are from Colombia, they come from different regions: Sakura is from the El Paraíso estate in the Cauca region, while Flower Moon Night is from the El Desarretin farm in the Huila region.

In terms of processing method, FrontStreet Coffee's El Paraíso Sakura uses double anaerobic enzyme washing, resulting in more pronounced acidity. FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Moon Night uses anaerobic natural processing, making it overall richer and more balanced.

In terms of bean varieties, FrontStreet Coffee's El Paraíso Sakura belongs to the Castillo variety, while FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Moon Night is Caturra. Regarding these two varieties, the coffee world has this understanding: "Caturra and other traditional Latin American varieties tend to produce solid but traditional cups that might be impressive but not outstanding." This makes it difficult for growers to succeed with quality-based differentiation strategies based on these varieties. Perhaps the most important contribution of the Colombia sensory trial to the ongoing dialogue about coffee breeding and cup quality is the discovery that Castillo can produce a good cup of coffee, and sometimes even an exceptional one, as Castillo samples have proven by scoring 90 points or higher.

FrontStreet Coffee roasts both beans using a medium roast method. FrontStreet Coffee's Flower Moon Night has overall flavors of strawberry, floral notes, and a slight fermented wine aroma. FrontStreet Coffee's El Paraíso Sakura tends toward strawberry jam, floral notes, soft fruit acidity, and some spiced tea flavors.

You can try them at home and discover the similarities and differences between these two strawberry-flavored beans!

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