Why We Don't Add Flavor Oils to Our Roasts (and What We Use Instead, When a Coffee Needs a Hand)
Flavored coffee isn't a single category. Most people don't realize that a "hazelnut coffee" doesn't contain hazelnuts — it contains roasted coffee that's been sprayed with hazelnut-flavored oil and then re-roasted or steam-injected to lock the flavor in. The hazelnut flavor isn't coming from the bean. It's coming from oil added to the bean.
We don't add flavor oils to anything we roast. The cup you brew from our coffee is the cup that's in the bean. This post is the inside view of what flavor oils are, why we don't use them, and what we do to make a coffee taste the way its origin and processing want it to taste.
What flavor oils actually are
A short explanation. "Flavor oil" is a colloquial term for an artificially or naturally flavored oil that's applied to roasted coffee beans. The oil base is usually a fractionated coconut oil or a similar neutral-tasting carrier. The flavor compounds are usually synthetic (vanillin for vanilla, maltol for "toasted" notes, etc.) or natural (real vanilla extract, real hazelnut extract, etc.).
The application happens in one of two ways:
- Steam injection. The flavor oil is heated and the steam is pumped into a rotating drum of beans. The beans tumble and pick up the oil.
- Spray and tumble. The oil is sprayed onto the beans in a tumbling drum, then the beans rest for 12 to 24 hours. Some producers do a second light roast to lock the flavor in.
The result is a bean that has a thin layer of flavored oil on its surface. As the bean rests and as the bag is opened, the aroma smells strongly of the added flavor. When you brew it, the oil gets pulled into the cup and you taste the added flavor on top of the coffee.
"Flavored coffee" is mostly this. It's an industry that has its own suppliers, its own equipment, and its own customer base. Most grocery-store coffees with names like "French Vanilla" or "Hazelnut Creme" are flavored using these methods.
Why we don't use flavor oils
Five reasons, in order of how strongly we feel about them.
1. The flavor doesn't taste like the bean. Flavor oils mask what's actually in the bean. A washed Ethiopian Yirgacheffe with bright citric and floral notes will get those notes buried under the flavor oil. The customer tasting "hazelnut Yirgacheffe" is tasting hazelnut, not Yirgacheffe.
2. The flavor fades fast. The flavored oil on the surface oxidizes quickly. The first cup out of the bag smells strongly of the flavor. By cup 5, the aromatic has faded. By cup 15, the flavor is mostly gone and you're tasting the bean underneath. The customer gets a confusing experience — the bag smelled great and then suddenly didn't.
3. The flavor coats your brewing equipment. Flavored oils leave a residue on your grinder burrs, on your brew basket, on your French press, on your cup. The residue builds up and starts to smell like the previous flavored coffee. It also transfers between bags — your grinder burrs from "Hazelnut Creme" coffee will start to add a hazelnut note to the next unflavored coffee you grind.
4. The flavor compounds are usually synthetic. Most "French Vanilla" flavor oils are made with vanillin (synthetic vanilla compound) rather than real vanilla. The cup you brew has artificial flavor compounds dissolved in it. We're not making a judgment about whether synthetic flavors are good or bad — we're just saying that customers who buy "vanilla coffee" usually think they're getting real vanilla, and most of them aren't.
5. It conflates "specialty coffee" with "infused coffee." Specialty coffee is about what's in the bean and how it was processed. Infused coffee is about what you can add to the bean after roasting. These are different categories. We work in specialty coffee.
What we do instead, when a coffee needs a hand
Just because we don't add flavor oils doesn't mean we don't adjust roast profiles. We do, in a few specific ways. These are all about bringing out what's already in the bean, not adding what's not.
Choosing the right green lot
The biggest influence on cup character is what was in the cup before roasting. A washed Ethiopian is going to taste bright and citric. A natural Ethiopian is going to taste fruity and wine-like. A Brazilian is going to taste chocolatey and heavy. A Kenyan is going to taste juicy and phosphoric.
When we taste a green lot sample (before we buy), we're looking for the cup we want to brew. If we want a bright citric cup, we look for lots from regions that produce that. If we want a heavy chocolatey cup, we look for lots from regions that produce that.
The first "adjustment" is selecting the right green lot for the cup we want to serve.
Adjusting the roast curve
Once we have the lot, the second adjustment is the roast curve — the rate of temperature rise through the roast, the development time after first crack, the final bean temperature at drop.
Different roast curves bring out different parts of the cup:
- Light roast, fast development. Maximizes acidity, minimizes body. Good for showcasing citric and floral notes in washed Ethiopians or Kenyans.
- Light roast, slow development. Slightly more body, balanced acidity. Good for showcasing complexity without losing character.
- Medium roast. A balance point. Sweetness and body come forward; acidity softens. Good for showcasing caramel and chocolate in Latin American coffees.
- Dark roast. Body and roast character dominate; acidity fades. Good for espresso or for customers who want the roast to be the flavor.
We don't have a single "house roast." We pick the roast curve based on what the lot wants to be. Some lots we run light. Some lots we run a bit deeper. Some lots we don't carry at all because the cup doesn't fit the catalog.
Aging the roast
A third adjustment is the rest. We roast on Wednesday and most customers receive the bag by Monday or Tuesday of the following week, which is 6 to 11 days off-roast. The coffee is inside the rest window where the cup is opening up but hasn't started to drift.
If we shipped the bag the day after roasting (1 day off-roast), the cup would taste under-developed — grassy, thin, and slightly vegetal. The 5 to 10 day rest before shipping is part of why the cup tastes the way it does. We don't rush this.
Blending carefully
We don't typically blend single origins. Our catalog is mostly single origin, with a small number of blends (an espresso blend, a breakfast blend, a decaffeinated blend).
When we do blend, we blend roasted coffees (not flavored oils). The blends are calibrated to give a specific cup character — an espresso blend might combine a Brazilian, a Colombian, and a small amount of an Ethiopian, with each component bringing something specific. The cup you get is the cup the blend was designed to give, without any flavor compounds added on top.
The blends are an old-school technique, mostly. Specialty coffee has leaned toward single-origin over the last decade. We carry both because customers want both.
What about "vanilla" or "chocolate" notes on the bag?
One clarification on our tasting-note language. When we say a coffee has "vanilla" or "chocolate" notes on the back of the bag, we're describing what's in the cup, not what's been added.
A washed Burundi might have a soft vanilla character that comes naturally from the bean's sugar development during processing. A natural Brazil might have a strong chocolate character that comes from the cocoa-like compounds in the pulp-nectar that the cherry ferments in. These aren't added — they're in the cup.
We don't write "chocolate" on a bag of Brazilian and then spray it with chocolate flavor oil. We write "chocolate" because the cup tastes like chocolate naturally. The tasting notes we put on the bag describe what's actually in the brew.
If a customer's experience of flavored coffee has been "tastes like the flavor name says," and our coffee doesn't taste like that, the gap is usually the flavor oil. We do not, by default, taste like vanilla even if our bags say "vanilla notes." The flavor oil is what makes the connection tight. Without it, the connection is softer — closer to "has a sweet, slightly aromatic character reminiscent of vanilla."
What we'd say to a customer who wants "flavored coffee"
If you want flavored coffee, that's a valid preference and there are good roasters who do it. We're not them.
What we can do:
- Suggest a coffee that already has the character you want. A natural Brazil for "chocolate." A washed Ethiopia for "fruit." A natural-processed Costa Rican for "honey and chocolate."
- Suggest adding flavor at the brew stage. Vanilla extract in the brewing water. Cinnamon in the grounds. Cocoa powder dusted on the cup. These won't add the "flavor oil" intensity, but they let you customize each cup.
- Be honest about the trade-off. Flavored coffee is a real category. Specialty single-origin is another. The two don't coexist cleanly. We've chosen specialty single-origin. The customer who wants flavored coffee should find a roaster who does it well, or learn to add the flavors at the brew stage.
We don't have anything against customers who want flavored coffee. We just don't roast it.
Where to take this if you're curious
If you've been drinking flavored coffee and want to see what specialty single-origin tastes like, a few practical starting points:
- Try a natural Brazil. Natural processed coffees tend to have the strongest chocolate character. It's the gentlest introduction to specialty single-origin because the cup feels familiar.
- Try a Costa Rican honey processed. Honey processed coffees have a strong caramel and brown sugar character. Another gentle introduction.
- Try a washed Ethiopian at light roast. The cup will taste different from anything in the flavored category. Bright, citric, floral. Some customers love it; some customers don't. There's no predicting.
- Brew unflavored at first. When you drink specialty single-origin for the first time, brew it unflavored. Sugar and milk mask a lot of what's in the cup. Drink it black for the first tasting; add milk or sugar after.
The cup specialty single-origin gives is a different cup than flavored coffee gives. Both are valid. We're in the specialty single-origin category because we believe that's the more interesting cup, and the more rewarding one to brew.
See our current single-origin catalog.
See our post on why we don't roast flavored coffee.
P.S. If you order from us and the cup tastes nothing like "vanilla" or "chocolate" even though the bag says those words, that's why. The flavor is in the bean. If you want the cup to taste more like the descriptor, brew unflavored and warm the cup a little; the aroma compounds show up more at 60 to 70 °C.
— Seraphina