Gourmet Coffees

What exactly are gourmet coffees? If you ask three different coffee lovers, you are likely to get three quite different answers. To some, a gourmet coffee simply means a bean or blend from a coffee specialty shop or vendor that is not available ordinarily in a supermarket. However, the demand for premium or gourmet coffees has become so pervasive that some of them actually are now available in many large grocery chains.

To another coffee lover, a gourmet coffee might mean a flavored coffee. No one specific bean is used to make a flavored coffee and different varieties and even different roasts work better with some flavors than others. In a good flavored gourmet coffee the added flavors will enhance and not overpower the flavor of the coffee itself. There are several ways to produce a flavored coffee. The simplest and probably the earliest know way is to simply add spice to the ground beans or even to the brewed cup. A good example of this is the addition of cardamon to some Turkish style coffee.

Another way to make a flavored coffee is to add an ingredient such as chocolate to the coffee before or after brewing. A popular and delicious example of the chocolate flavored gourmet coffees is the addition of cacao nibs to the beans. This is the product from which all chocolate is made and it flavors the cup subtly as it brews. Chocolate or perhaps a liqueur can also be added to a brewed cup of coffee for special occasions. Barrista syrups are another example of added flavors and these are now widely available.

In some cases flavored gourmet coffees are made by adding flavor extracts and essences to hot coffee beans fresh from the roaster. The flavors are absorbed by the warm beans and perfuse the coffee when it is brewed. These come in both natural and artificial flavors and the possibilities for flavor combinations are almost unlimited. Popular choices for these flavor essences are nut flavors such as hazelnut or almond, candy flavors like chocolate, coconut, or toffee, or liqueur flavors. Spice oils like cinnamon also make excellent flavored beans.

For others, the only true gourmet coffees are not flavored by anything other than Mother Nature. Coffee beans can taste quite different based on the variety, the growing conditions, and the way in which they are processed and roasted. A fine gourmet coffee may be a single extraordinary variety from a limited area or estate such as Jamaican Blue Mountain or Kona coffee, or it may be a blend of two or more different beans. Finally, both the roasting degree and the method of brewing help to create the optimum taste in fine gourmet coffees.

Gourmet Coffees

Gourmet coffees may be designated by being coffees from coffee specialty companies, as flavored coffees or coffee beverages, or may be specific coffee bean varieties or blends. For those who consider flavored coffees to be gourmet, the flavor ingredients can be added to the beans or added after brewing. For5 more info on gourmet coffees please visit this web site.