What Flavors Does Coffee Have? How Can You Taste Coffee Flavors? Why Does Coffee Taste Bitter?

Experiencing coffee flavors has become one of the most popular trends since the concept of specialty coffee emerged. Nowadays, anyone who has been exposed to specialty coffee can easily list the flavors of a cup of light-roast coffee like reciting a menu: white floral notes, berries, citrus, honeydew melon, wine-like aromas, and so on, making onlookers exclaim that they're drinking an undercooked "mushroom soup."

However, if you're drinking dark-roast coffee, the number of identifiable flavors will visibly decrease. Basically, besides more obvious flavors like nuts and chocolate, it becomes difficult to associate other flavors. Is this because dark-roast coffee has fewer flavors?

Yes, compared to light-roast coffee, there are indeed fewer. But these aren't the only flavor profiles. Dark-roast bitter coffee still has many types of flavors. It's just that most aroma types are quite similar, making them less distinguishable. So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share what other flavors exist in dark-roast bitter coffee besides nuts and chocolate, and how to capture these flavors!

Just like experiencing the floral and fruity notes of light-roast acidic coffee, the flavors of dark-roast bitter coffee are not captured solely by the taste buds, but also require combining the aromas identified by nasal olfaction to associate coffee flavors.

What Flavors Are in Bitter Coffee?

Caramel Aromas

Caramel aromas are one of the most common and easily captured flavor types in dark-roast coffee. They are primarily produced by the caramelization reaction that occurs during the coffee bean roasting process. Through caramelization, the sugar substances in coffee begin to brown, producing burnt aromas. Aromas like caramel, brown sugar, and maple syrup are developed during this process.

However, we need to understand that so-called caramel and maple syrup do not mean the coffee has sweetness in taste. It's merely that the coffee emits similar sweet aromas that make people think of caramel. Therefore, they are flavors rather than sweetness perceived by the taste buds. Friends should not confuse the two.

Roasted Aromas

Roasted aromas in dark-roast coffee are the second most easily captured aroma type after nutty aromas. These aromas are formed when amino acids and proteins in coffee beans undergo the Maillard reaction.

Toast, roasted meat, butter cookies, grains, malt, smoke, and so on, all belong to this category of flavors. The "coffee flavor" often mentioned by people mainly refers to this type of aroma.

Nutty Aromas

Nutty aromas are the most easily captured flavor type in dark-roast coffee. They share the same "origin" as roasted aromas and are also formed after amino acids and proteins undergo the Maillard reaction.

Nutty aromas include a wide variety of flavors, with the most commonly captured being hazelnut, almond, peanut, and chocolate. It's worth noting that the chocolate here mostly refers to dark chocolate, not the high-cocoa-butter-substitute chocolate we commonly encounter.

Spice Aromas

The last category is spice aromas! However, spices are not only common in dark-roast bitter coffee; some heavily anaerobically processed coffee beans or coffee beans with special genetics will also have similar aromas.

In dark-roast coffee, spice aromas are more difficult to capture because their intensity is weaker compared to the previous three categories. Additionally, because these aromas are not commonly encountered in daily life - they're mostly used as seasonings for cooking dishes - people find it harder to perceive these flavors (except for friends who cook often).

These aromas are also developed through the Maillard reaction. In the coffee flavor wheel, the spice category records flavors like clove, cardamom, and cinnamon.

Although spice flavors are not as easy to capture, if we associate them with foods that use a lot of spices, it might be simpler. For example, recently FrontStreet Coffee shared a heavily anaerobic coffee bean with customers at the store, which contained rich spice aromas. But just mentioning a specific spice didn't make it easy for everyone to associate, until FrontStreet Coffee mentioned "curry," and everyone exclaimed in unison, "Oh~ that seems to be the flavor."

Therefore, our flavor perception doesn't need to be too rigid. The flavors mentioned above are all positive flavors that appear in dark-roast coffee. As the saying goes, where there is light, there is darkness; where there are positive flavors, there will be negative flavors. In dark-roast coffee, negative flavors are, of course, unavoidable.

Burnt, carbon, medicinal taste, greasy, and rotten wood are all common negative flavors in dark-roast coffee. Their appearance makes us feel that the coffee is difficult to swallow, causes throat-catching, and creates sharp, irritating sensations.

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473