Like Craig David, tell us what’s your flavour? Do you like chocolate, vanilla, or maybe something entirely different? But before that, let’s ask: What is flavour?
Flavour is the combined perception of taste, aroma, and chemesthetic sensations detected through the gustatory, olfactory, and trigeminal systems and integrated by the brain into a unified sensory experience. But honestly, that’s a bit too complicated and heavy for most people to understand. Coffee, like all food and fruit, has its distinctive character, which contributes to a unique sensory experience.
Simply put, flavour is the smells and tastes we perceive when we eat or drink anything. At its most basic, it comes down to the sweet, sour, bitter, and umami elements in what we consume.
So how does this relate to coffee? When we talk about coffee, most people notice bitterness in every cup, but it helps to reframe that as the richness of 90% dark chocolate. Sourness might be like that of a lemon or orange. Sweetness could remind you of mangoes or peaches. Umaami might be similar to seaweed.
Smell is another key factor in flavour. That’s why coffee often smells delicate or light, sometimes even tea-like due to aromas such as jasmine flowers, oolong, and similar floral notes.
Don’t believe us? Look up the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA) flavour wheel. You’ll find an incredible range of flavours you can detect in coffee and from there, you can dive deep into the world of coffee and its sensory complexity. If you’re still not convinced, you might find similarities in other beverages too:
Wine Shares a similar flavour wheel since it’s also fruit-based.
Tea offers floral, grassy, and earthy tones similar to coffee.
Chocolate: Like coffee, it comes from a seed and develops rich, complex flavours.
Beer, especially craft beer, where different grains and ingredients create distinct flavour profiles.
In summary, coffee is much like these other drinks, a combination of taste, smell, and texture that ultimately leads to that one sip capable of transporting you into a world of endless possibilities.