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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on January 23, 2009 at 1:43pm

I do sell flavored lattes and mochas, I also will add a flavor to our drip coffee. I guess we look at it this way, the job of a barista and the job of a roaster are two different things. When I put on my roasters cap I need to be true to the coffee, when roasting my goal is to profile each roast to bring each different coffee to the best that it can be. When I put on my baristas apron my goal becomes the satisfaction of my customer, making the drink that they will most enjoy is now my duty.

Heath Henley said:

Jason Shipley said:

but the mere act of selling it changes what your company is and how you will be perceived by your customers and contemporaries. We look at it as yes we could sell flavored coffee to some of our customers but we feel it would damage our reputation of Quality.

Then I suppose you don't offer flavored lattes or mochas?

I agree that flavored coffee is not what you want to build your business on, but if your doing wholesale roasting (and you're willing to put up with the mess and stink of using the oils) then I don't think it reflects poorly on your "reputation of quality."

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Permalink Reply by Heath Henley on January 23, 2009 at 2:39pm

Fair enough. To be sure, I'm not advocating that people need to, or even should, offer flavored coffees. I do agree that I would be more skeptical of a company that offered flavored coffees on their website. Personally, I led the push in my previous job as roaster for a local chain of shops to eliminate flavored coffee altogether from our stores - and we did. But would I turn down a good wholesale account that was *specifically* looking for a flavored coffee? It would be difficult, particularly as a small business.

I guess that's what I understood El Lago Coffee's response about flavoring coffee for a customer to be: a wholesale decision - not a retail one. They referred to a customer that specifically wants flavored coffee, under which circumstance they are simply pursuing the satisfaction of the customer as well.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Newbom on January 25, 2009 at 9:38am

syrups are adulterants just like flavored coffee oil/perfumes. both suck and both are a travesty.

The ONLY reason to do either is to cover the flavor of nasty coffee. Same as roasting to the third crack.




course that is only my opinion...

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on January 25, 2009 at 10:38am

There's a third crack?! ::shudder::

Andy Newbom said:

syrups are adulterants just like flavored coffee oil/perfumes. both suck and both are a travesty.

The ONLY reason to do either is to cover the flavor of nasty coffee. Same as roasting to the third crack.




course that is only my opinion...

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Permalink Reply by Billy Kangas on January 25, 2009 at 2:07pm

In the past I've looked into different roasters, and If I saw they offered flavored coffee I took it as a clear sign they weren't worth my time. I'm not saying It's the right attitude, but it is the one I've had, and I'm sure others have it too.

As far as flavors go. I have walked into more then one shop and turned right around when a saw they had a whole wall of "DaVinci Gourmet – Flavored Syrups"
For me an emphasis on Flavors has without fail told me there wasn't an emphasis of the coffee.

I'm not saying there isn't an exception, but that is how I personally judge thing.

It's jumping to a conclusion, but I really don't have the time or the money to try everything. Be aware of the message Flavored coffee sends, and your syrups too for that matter.

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Permalink Reply by Rich Abker on January 29, 2009 at 5:48pm

Coffee flavorings are not a natural ingredient of the coffee bean that waited for five years for its tree mom to offer it up during harvest. Coffee flavorings are not found in the normal fermenting, washing, hulling, grading, sacking, selling, buying, cupping, roasting, blending, stages. From what I remember in the pure coffee books that I have read, flavorings were initially added to coffee in order to mask, staleness, poor tasting coffees, robustas, and tasteless filler coffees. Since added flavors have such a bad rep, I am not surprised that in general, flavored coffee is not accepted by the Specialty Coffee Community.

The Specialty Coffee Community accepts the uncomprimising position of quality in the cup, always.

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