COFFEE OPINION - Flavor Notes Must Be Stopped

[Music] what's up everyone its Prometheus and like the title says today we are talking about flavor notes some are simple like chocolate and caramel others are a little bit more intricate like dried mango and lemon rind and others are just plain weird like grape candy and leather so in this video I'll be talking or ranting depending on how you look at it about a few things things like should we really expect to taste these wild flavor notes and our morning cup of coffee are those off-the-wall notes that we see on some coffee bags a marketing ploy should we as an industry move away from these very specific flavor notes and maybe a few more topics if the feeling strikes so join me won't you on this journey or whatever you want to call it all about flavor notes but first let's do just a quick and dirty review on what flavor notes actually are to start flavor notes or tasting notes are things that are inherent within the coffee bean itself and not something that's added either during or after the processing or roasting so all these things happen naturally and there's a few different things that can affect the flavor of your coffee a few of these things are origin processing roasting and brew method just to name a few now I could go on and on about how flavor notes are affected by your soil or your varietals or all these different aspects that come into play but I'll save that for a different video today I want to focus more on the flavor notes that are on the bag and how we perceive them some coffees have flavor notes that are just so intense and so clear that it would bring some people to ask if that coffee has been actually flavored to taste like that certain thing other flavors can just be extremely subtle and requires some significant tasting experience as well as a pretty big catalog of flavor references for example can you clearly explain to someone the difference between the taste of a Meyer lemon and a standard lemon or maybe the differences between semi-sweet chocolate and baker's chocolate now that whole thing just isn't very easy and requires some pretty extensive training and expertise calibration recalibration testing certification and recertification and the people who do those types of things are called queue graders and that's just a really highly specialized copy tasting person but for the average or even knowledgeable consumer tasting notes serve as a guide to aim them in the right direction to find a copy they'd like do you think that the average person will taste chocolate and that Brazilian coffee yeah probably but will the average consumer tastes grape jelly doughnut in that naturally processed Costa Rican no probably not now we've all seen a coffee bag with an odd flavor note on it here there these tend to be the exception and not so much the rule in terms of flavor notes but they happen the off-the-wall notes that we see can range from things like breakfast cereals beloved childhood candies and even things that don't really have a recognizable or even a flavor to speak of no so this begs the question are some of these crazy off-the-wall flavor notes more of a marketing ploy than anything else and at this point I think I have to say that yeah in some cases this is true the fact is this type of marketing works and it worked on me very recently when I posted this question to Instagram asking my followers what are some of the weirdest coffee flavors you've seen and someone posted a coffee with the flavor note of mango white claw for those not familiar with white claw it's an alcoholic malt beverage that's basically a sparkling water with some flavor added to it so seeing a copy with this flavor on the bag added a level of curiosity that I just couldn't resist a morbid curiosity but curiosity nonetheless but that curiosity brought me to their website it brought me to that specific coffee and then I found myself putting in my credit card information and buying a twenty dollar bag of coffee to ship across the country just to see if it tasted like mango white claw and not even being familiar with what mango white claw tasted like I went out and bought one of those just to compare the two and spoiler alert it tastes nothing like mango Clau but who's to say they didn't taste it I can't say that I can't say that they didn't taste mango white claw and that natural Ethiopian but to me it just feels like a marketing strategy more so than a note that your customers are actually going to experience in the bigger picture flavor notes actually do us a pretty solid service by being kind of a guide being a coffee Sherpa and sending us in the right direction of finding copies that we'd like with things that we want in our cup of coffee and very rarely will you buy a coffee that has things are completely wrong or completely misguided on the bag as flavor notes in some ways flavor notes are just very simple if you like fruity coffees look for fruit notes if you like chocolaty copies look for chocolate notes but try not to be discouraged if you don't taste exactly the notes that are on the bag oftentimes those flavors on the bag are chosen and very specific almost loud like circumstances that are very very difficult for most people or anyone to recreate at home or anywhere else especially at home with that dusty old Bharata encore that your roommate just ground a two-year old bag of vanilla flavored 7-eleven coffee in and that water from a Brita filter that hasn't been changed since the office was still putting out new episodes you'll thank me later and yes of course this are very extreme and specific circumstances but it really illustrates my point that the flavor notes on the bag should be taken with a grain of salt in fact some Roasters are moving away from that very highly specific flavor note program take this bag from Kickapoo coffee for example it basically gives you just enough information to aim you in the right direction in finding a coffee you'd like but not specific enough to have customers sliding into their DMS asking why and that new Ethiopian they just got they didn't taste pickle Ric pickle flavor notes are kind of a fun but sometimes stressful balancing act that we as Roasters and consumers play with each other I don't think many if any Roasters are lying about what they taste on the bag but I do my best to try to keep myself a little bit from looking at the flavor notes too much because I really don't want to be pushed or suggested in one direction or another about what I should be tasting in that coffee but my self-control could use a little work it's way too easy to take a sip of coffee and think to yourself yeah that does taste like orange soda but would you have gone down that path without first seeing that flavoring out on the bag now that's something that's actually worth asking yourself next time you're sipping a coffee and looking at the notes I think that as an industry is coffee professionals and even as copy consumers we should try to understand the power of suggestion and the effect that that has over us and our coffee tasting experience and really try to avoid it as much as possible I can't be the only one who takes a sip of coffee sometimes while looking at the bag and look at those flavor notes and think yeah okay and just really grind those gears until I taste what's on the bag and that's just no fun for anyone as you can probably tell tasting notes and I have a love-hate relationship on one side of the coin they help Amy in the right direction and finding coffees that I prefer on the other side they are very suggestive and tend to cloud my tasting experience where I'm focusing on trying to taste what's on the bag instead of actually tasting the coffee without any preconceived notions in the end I think there's a lack of understanding about how these flavor notes are actually found and determined they're often done in a cupping lab with very specific recipes grinders water and tasting practices like slurping off of a cupping spoon and I think it also should be understood that some if not many of these notes may or may not come through on even a single cup of coffee you make from that entire bag but now I'm going to pass this question on to you is there a way we can bridge this gap should we just keep rolling with these varied hyper specific flavor notes or should we try and spread them out and do broader categories how do you feel when you buy a bag of coffee and you don't taste any of the notes on the bag do you feel misled or do you blame yourself for your brewing equipment or something like that lastly let me know if you've ever bought a bag of coffee purely because of some interesting flavor note on the bag and you're just really curious I know I can't be the only one with that said I think it's time to wrap this one up don't forget to drop the answers to life's copy questions down below and I'll see you lovely coffee folks next week and a big thank you to my June patreon supporters adds james b david Hammad christopher john k squeegee ro brian Lisa Thomas B Andre Rick racer Sean Joey Thomas s Noel Lucas bound coffee Mika Samantha Nathan Aidan Jonathan Clare Steven James Kate Josh Andrew oli ninja warrior' coffee testing one two three Horace and Bobby Cory C curry Dave B Jerry Marcus Nicholas Paul Rd Tim Matt Tony and of course Sacre V and last but not least big thanks to the barista and far back tears if you want information on my patreon there's a link in the description and in the upper right hand corner right now and lastly thank you for watching don't forget to like share and subscribe hit that little Bell button for notifications of new videos posted every Friday follow my Instagram that's prometheus my blog ATS Prometheus calm my coffee at little giant coffee and as always stay caffeinated Ponyboy

Channel: The Real Sprometheus

Views: 57,993

Keywords: Coffee Flavor Notes, Coffee Tasting, Coffee Origin, Coffee Processing, Tasting Coffee, Barista, Barista Training, James Hoffman, Chris Baca, Coffee Tasting Notes, Coffee, Espresso, Specialty Coffee, Buying Coffee, Captain Crunch, Nerds Candy, Mango White Claw, Barista Brew Methods, Home Barista, How To Taste Coffee, Fruity Coffee, Chocolaty Coffee, Coffee Cupping, Sprometheus, Third Wave Coffee, Coffee Experiments, Niche Zero, Pour Over, Coffee Video, Making Coffee

Id: wg1095Tc9j4

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2020