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Flavored Coffee Beans
The essence of coating coffee beans with flavor compounds is to supplement the natural or 'origin' taste of the beans - the end result is flavored coffee beans. Also, coffee beans flavoring is a helpful way of protracting the shell life of coffee by masking alteration in flavor due to oxidation, decaffeination or aging processes.
Various forms of flavored coffees had been in use for centuries past; however, the gourmet coffee of the 90s is the reason behind the increased demand and interest in exotic coffee flavors. The current technology has made it possible for the beans to be produced with any flavor you can think of. Generally, the roast-masters such as the Bean Smith employ the best roast profile or recipe to highlight certain flavor characteristics, which is the reason why their roasted coffees are widely sought-after globally.
Flavor Usage
In trying to produce flavored coffee beans, the correct amount of flavoring to be used by the roast-masters must be ascertained prior to adding flavor oils to the roasted beans. Typically, the rate of flavor use would vary between 2 and 3 percent, which is approximately 3 percent industry-wide. When 3% is the usage rate, it implies that 100 pounds of roasted beans would be mixed with 3 pounds of flavor oil.
The type of flavor, its intensity, the roast level and the type of bean used would determine the amount of flavoring needful for flavored coffee beans. Also, since flavors are relatively cost-intensive, cost constraints may also be a determining factor when it comes to the amount of flavor that would be added to the beans. However, renowned roast-masters such as Bean Smith would always place customer satisfaction as the first priority before cost; thus, the amount of flavouring that would satisfy the taste of customers is not compromised regardless of the cost.
The conventional technique of 'adding and tasting' is employed most times in flavouring coffee beans. In essence, small amounts of oil flavour are added to test batches of beans at a time, until the preferred flavour characteristics are obtained. This technique is almost the same as deciding the quantity of sugar you would add to a cup of tea or coffee, putting a smaller quantity per time and tasting the tea or coffee to know when the desired taste is obtained.
Packaging Flavored Coffee Beans
The finished flavored coffee beans is packaged in cans or bags, followed by the sealing process, this is done very quickly in order to prevent likely contact with the atmosphere. Before the packaging is done, nitrogen is used to flush the container - this process would help get rid of oxygen from the container. If not flushed, oxygen in the container can react with the flavor oils components to impact the quality of the coffee. As soon as they are roasted, coffee beans would release their oils and deterioration would set in fast, if there is exposure to oxygen. Also, flushing the container with nitrogen would ensure freshness since there is no presence of oxygen to stale the coffee.
In order to preserve flavored coffee beans, store in a cool, dark place, especially if it is to be used within 3 weeks or slightly more. However, if there is need for longer storage, it should be frozen.
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