Why Does Coffee Have an Alcoholic Taste? Does Coffee Contain Alcohol? Why Do Some Coffees Have Such Strong Wine-like Aromas?

Wine-like Flavors in Coffee: Understanding the Alcoholic Aromas Without Alcohol

It's well-known that we often detect wine-like flavors in coffee—notes of red wine, champagne, and whiskey have become commonplace flavor profiles that we've grown quite accustomed to.

However, friends who are less familiar with coffee might be concerned about whether they can drive after drinking such a coffee with strong wine-like flavors—truly showing their sense of responsibility as traffic law-abiding citizens. Rest assured—regular single-origin coffee contains no alcohol. Even when the wine-like flavors are pronounced, it remains a non-alcoholic beverage. After all, alcohol evaporates very quickly at room temperature, let alone coffee beans spending extended time in a 200°C roaster. Therefore, the wine-like flavors we taste in single-origin coffee do not come from alcohol. (This applies only to black coffee with nothing added.)

Why Do Coffee Beans Develop Wine-like Flavors?

"If it's not from alcohol, why do wine-like flavors appear in coffee?" FrontStreet Coffee believes this is a question many friends are curious about. In fact, FrontStreet Coffee mentioned in the article "Is Coffee Flavor Mysticism?" that most of the flavors we perceive from everything around us come from aroma. For example, strawberry flavor comes from strawberry aroma, while orange flavor comes from orange aroma. The floral, fruity, and wine-like aromas we experience in coffee are all because coffee beans, after roasting, develop aromatic components identical to certain corresponding foods, allowing us to associate specific foods through those aromas.

Of course, besides aroma, the taste and mouthfeel of coffee also help reinforce our association with wine (scientifically known as aroma synergy effect). In other words, the reason we can perceive wine-like flavors in coffee is because coffee, after roasting, develops certain aromatic components identical to those found in wine. Combined with its taste and mouthfeel, we can then experience wine-like flavors (or rather, wine aromas) in coffee.

However, not all coffees exhibit wine-like aromas, as this is closely related to coffee growing conditions and processing methods.

I. Growing Environment and Variety Genetics

We all know that sugars in green coffee beans are key substances for aroma formation. They convert into other substances during processing and roasting, including esters and alcohols that constitute wine-like aromas. The two main factors determining the sugar content in green coffee beans are variety genetics and growing environment.

Variety genetics determines the potential of coffee beans. For example, Arabica varieties contain twice as much sugar as Robusta varieties, so they naturally have more aroma potential. The growing environment determines the development level of coffee beans, with many influencing factors. FrontStreet Coffee will use altitude as an example. When coffee beans are grown at higher altitudes, the larger temperature difference between day and night at high elevations extends the maturation time of coffee beans, allowing them to accumulate more sugars before ripening. The more sugars accumulated, the more abundant and intense aromas and flavors the beans can naturally generate after processing and roasting.

II. Processing

After coffee cherries mature, they are harvested and transported to processing facilities where they undergo processing to remove everything except the beans. Processing is the crucial stage that determines whether coffee beans will develop wine-like aromas! Regarding this point, we can directly see clues from the classification of wine in the flavor wheel.

As you can see, red wine and whiskey are both classified under the fermented category, with their adjacent attributes being "fermented" and "ripe" respectively. This is because wine-like aromas are primarily produced through microbial fermentation, and the same applies to coffee. Coffee beans undergo fermentation during processing, and different processing methods result in varying degrees of fermentation. When coffee beans undergo more fermentation during processing, the concentration of wine-like aromas formed will be higher. This is why wine-like aromas often appear in natural, honey, and anaerobic processed coffees, as their fermentation degrees are relatively deeper.

III. Roasting Technique

In terms of roasting, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned at the beginning, it transforms the stored substances in coffee beans, so FrontStreet Coffee won't elaborate further here. However, interestingly, on the basis that coffee beans already possess wine-like aromas from processing, the degree of roasting can determine the characteristics of wine-like aromas—whether the wine-like flavor is of a fresh type or a rich type. Because as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, wine-like flavor is a flavor characteristic jointly composed of aroma, taste, and mouthfeel, and the degree of roasting affects the taste and aroma expression of coffee, naturally influencing the overall character to some extent.

For example, the 90+ Juliette Geisha in FrontStreet Coffee's bean selection: before listing it, FrontStreet Coffee roasted several batches of Juliette at different roast levels for cupping, aiming to select the roast profile that would best showcase its flavor characteristics. Since it's a heavily anaerobic processed coffee bean, it naturally carries prominent wine-like aromas. Through cupping, we can taste that the light roast version emits very fresh wine-like aromas, similar to the light type of champagne; while the medium roast version gives off richer wine-like aromas, close to the mellow type of red wine.

Extraction Methods

In addition to the aforementioned "upstream industries" that cause coffee beans to develop wine-like aromas, certain coffee extraction methods can also produce similar effects. However, they don't change the coffee beans themselves but rather the extracted coffee. Cold brew coffee is an excellent example.

Friends who have tried cold brew know that its wine-like aroma is extremely intense—even coffee beans without inherent wine-like aromas develop rich wine-like aromas after being made into cold brew. This is mainly due to the special extraction method of cold brew coffee! Cold brew is a coffee extraction method using cold water drip, but after extraction, the coffee cannot be consumed immediately—it needs to be sealed and refrigerated for several hours before it can be enjoyed. Because during the refrigeration process, the coffee undergoes slow fermentation, generating more substances to enhance mouthfeel and flavor. The wine-like aroma is produced during this refrigeration process through fermentation.

The more inherent wine-like aromas the coffee beans have, or the longer the fermentation time, the more intense the wine-like aromas in the final cold brew coffee will be. In summary, now everyone can understand why coffee can have wine-like aromas even without containing alcohol. FrontStreet Coffee still needs to remind everyone that the above applies only to black coffee with nothing added, not to those specialty coffees with additional alcohol ingredients.

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