FLAVORING COFFEE

You wonder how flavored coffee like "Chocolate Swiss Almond," "Hazelnut," Amaretto Supreme," "Irish Creme," "French Vanilla," and "Georgia Pecan" came about?

Background
Flavored coffee beans are coated with flavor compounds to supplement coffee beans' natural taste. In addition, these flavors help extend the shelf life of coffee by disguising changes in flavor due to decaffeination, oxidation, or aging processes. Flavored coffees in one form or another have been used for centuries, but the gourmet coffee boom of the 1990s resulted in an increased interest in exotic flavors of coffee. With current chemical technology, the beans can be produced with almost any flavor imaginable.

History
Although many people regard flavored coffee as a modern invention, its origins are nearly as old as the original beverage itself. History shows that a few hundred years ago in the Middle East, people enjoyed drinking coffee blended with nuts and spices. In modern times, innovative marketers have capitalized on coffee drinkers' desire for more flavors than nature can provide and have found new ways to introduce flavoring agents into coffee. First, flavored syrups were used to spike brewed coffee with a touch of a favored flavor. More recent improvements in food science have led to ways of introducing complex flavors directly onto the beans as part of a post-roasting process. When these flavored beans are used for brewing, the flavor is extracted into the resulting beverage. Today consumers can choose from a wide array of flavored coffee beans with names like "Chocolate Swiss Almond," "Hazelnut," "Amaretto Supreme," "Irish Creme," "French Vanilla," and "Georgia Pecan."

From Another Source: Flavoring coffee is actually an old trick. In Mexico and the Middle East it is traditional to add cardamom to coffee.

Turkish Arab coffee is made in an Ibriq, a small copper pot with a long handle. Two teaspoons of finely-ground coffee plus one of sugar are added to a cup of water and the mixture is brought to the boil. The Ibriq is taken off the heat as it comes to the boil, usually three times, and then it is poured out and drunk. A cardamom seed can also be added for flavor.

Raw Materials:
1. Coffee Beans
The type of bean used to make flavored coffee greatly impacts the taste of the finished product.

In general Coffea arabica (or arabica) beans are used for flavored coffees due to their low levels of acidity and bitterness. Arabica was the earliest cultivated species of coffee and is still the most highly prized. These top quality beans are milder and more flavorful than the harsher Coffea canefora (or robusta) beans, which are used in many commercial and instant coffees. Some manufacturers create flavored coffees from a blend of beans from various regions. High quality beans are grown in Colombia, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala.

2. Flavoring Oils
Flavoring oils are combinations of natural and synthetic flavor chemicals, which are compounded by professional flavor chemists.

Natural oils used in flavored coffees are extracted from a variety of sources, such as vanilla beans, cocoa beans, and various nuts and berries. Cinnamon, clove, and chicory are also used in a variety of coffee flavors.

Synthetic flavor agents are chemicals, which are manufactured on a commercial basis. For example, a nutty, woody, musty flavor can be produced with 2, 4-Dimethyl-5-acetylthiazole. Similarly, 2,5-Dimethylpyrazine is used to add an earthy, almost peanuty or potato-like flavor. Flavor chemists blend many such oils to achieve specific flavor combinations. While other food flavors may be composed of nine or 10 ingredients, coffee flavors may require up to 80 different compounds to achieve subtle flavors. Virtually any taste can be reproduced. Marketers have found that consumers prefer coffee flavors with sweet creamy notes. The ideal flavor should mask some of the harsh notes of the coffee yet not interfere with its aromatic characteristics.

The pure flavor compounds described above are highly concentrated and must be diluted in a solvent to allow the blending of multiple oils and easy application to the beans. Common solvents include water, alcohol, propylene glycol, and fractionated vegetable oils. These solvents are generally volatile chemicals that are removed from the beans by drying. Older solvent system technology produced beans which dried up and lost flavor. Current technology uses more stable solvents, which leave the beans with a glossy sheen and longer lasting flavor.

The flavor chemicals and the solvents used in flavors must not only be approved for use in foods, but they must also not adversely react with the packaging material and the processing equipment with which they come into contact. Furthermore, they must meet the desired cost constraints.

Source: Enotes