Tasting the Subtle Notes of Bold Coffee

You might not realize it at first, but coffee is a delicate thing. It’s full of lively flavors and aromas that can be overlooked by drinkers or even destroyed during processing or brewing.

For comparison, imagine a fine wine. The taste in your glass is a culmination of any number of factors, including the soil, climate, age, and processing. You can’t harness a wine’s fragile flavor notes by violently crushing and smashing the grapes with a machine. And neither can you expect great coffee by savagely forcing high-pressure hot water through ground coffee. It ends up burning the coffee, giving it a harsh bitter taste.

Instead, Caffè di Artisan exquisite, single-origin luxury coffee that allows flavors to flourish. Delight your palate by ordering our coffee pods today. Below you will find several flavor notes to look for in your coffee. They may be subtle, but that’s what separates a “good” cup of Joe from real, luxury coffee.

Bold & Bitter. There’s nothing quite like a bold cup of coffee. That first sip of black coffee passes your lips and instantly soothes you and (conversely) wakes you up. Bitter is admittedly an acquired taste. It’s likely that the first time you sipped coffee black, it was hard to drink. But over time you began to love it. Science shows that the more we taste bitter, the more we like it.

However, it’s important to note that bitter is not the same thing as burnt. Bitter is a bold flavor that satisfies the palate, while burnt coffee tastes like spent match heads. Yuck!

Bright or Acidic. Have you ever had a cup of coffee that made your lips pucker or your mouth water? The tart flavors or sour zing in coffee is known as acidity. Some coffee have higher acidity and thus a more “bright” taste. These flavor notes are most often found in lighter roasts, although some dark roasts are known to retain bright or acidic flavors.

Cacao or Chocolate. Darker roasts often have a chocolatey taste akin to cacao (raw chocolate) or dark chocolate. These notes are especially present in espresso shots.

Earthy or Woody. Some coffees, especially those sources from South America, have a essence of moist soil or lush forests. Some people might refer to these tastes as earthy, woody, or piney.

Nutty. Occasionally you’ll sip a cup of coffee and notice a nutty afterburn similar to almonds, walnuts, or cashews. Notably nutty coffee pair well with breakfast pastries, such as banana nut muffins or almond croissants.

Sweet or Caramel. Another delightfully subtle coffee note is sweet. While this can hard to pick up at first, eating a little bit of maple syrup or salted caramel can really make the sweet tastes come alive. Keep in mind this flavor can easily be lost if the beans or liquid coffee are burnt.

You should also note that if you make coffee with a machine, many of these exquisite flavor notes are lost – either because the machine indelicately brews the flavors to death or because the machine retains the taste of old coffee (and germs).

If you really want to get the most out of your morning java, purchase your luxury coffee from Caffè di Artisan.