Flavored coffee beans have become quite popular in recent years. Vanilla, hazelnut, and other flavored coffee bean favorites definitely bring a number of customers in the door for many specialty coffee retailers.

And flavored coffee beans account for a meaningful number of online orders for specialty coffee beans.

But for coffee connoisseurs, flavored coffee beans can pose a bit of a dilemma. These strong flavorings added to the coffee beans really over-power and mask the distinctive and subtle flavor nuances of the coffee underneath.

You typically won’t find these flavorings added to the many premium single-origin coffees. Obviously, there’s not much point or value in going to all the painstaking effort to cultivate, process, and carefully roast an exquisite origin such as a Sulawesi, only to obliterate the coffee with an over-powering vanilla, hazelnut or chocolate flavoring additive.

For those that enjoy the wonderful and enticing aroma of fresh-roasted coffee beans, the flavored coffee beans are typically completely overwhelming. When I walk into a coffee store that has flavored coffee beans on display for sale, I’m usually overcome by the powerful perfume-like aroma of vanilla or hazelnut. All I can smell are the flavored coffee beans. And even more confusing and distracting if there are several different coffee bean flavorings competing for the aroma air waves in the store.

This can be a dilemma for the specialty coffee retailer committed to providing a premium gourmet coffee experience for their customers. It’s difficult to manage an environment inside the store that supports the full range of both robust and subtle coffee aromas while at the same time trying to compete with the dominant and over-powering perfume smells of the flavored coffee beans. But, understandably, against their personal preferences, store owners may still feel the pressure to satisfy customer demand and offer the flavored coffee beans.

And the challenge is not only the contentious aroma. The flavored beans will also completely overwhelm the coffee grinders, storage containers and coffee brewing equipment. The flavoring chemicals added to the coffee beans will stick to the blades, grinding wheels, and internal components of the coffee grinder. Once you put flavored coffee beans through a grinder, it’s almost impossible to eliminate or remove the lingering remnants of the flavoring additives. If you’re going to grind flavored coffee beans, you really need to maintain separate grinders and keep things isolated.

And once you put flavored coffee beans in a storage container, you’ll almost never be able to get the favoring smell out of the container. Add another dedicated French vanilla coffee bean container to your stockpile.

And, there’s nothing exactly natural about these coffee bean flavorings. In order for the flavor additives to survive the roasting process, the packaging and shelf-storage time frame that could be months for product distributed through the grocery stores, and ultimately make it through the coffee brewing process with enough flavor punch remaining in the cup, these flavor additives need to be sufficiently strong and potent. Yes, coffee bean flavorings are actually a sophisticated modern chemical engineering accomplishment. Not much natural about it at all.

At the Gourmet Coffee Zone, we advocate and promote the enjoyment of the many exciting, subtle, unique and truly satisfying flavor and taste qualities of the natural coffee beans themselves. The variety of flavor from chocolate, to vanilla, to spice and nuttiness is there in the natural coffees without the need for intrusive chemical additives. It’s just a bit more subtle, but definitely much more interesting and balanced in the great premium coffee origins.

But we also understand if you enjoy the flavored coffees. We do hope we can contribute, even in a small way, to expanding your coffee horizons. If you’re interested in exploring for new flavors and experiencing some different coffee tastes, try an Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, or a superbly crafted Mocha-Java blend. You might be pleasantly surprised.

And if you still like the idea of flavored coffees, but you’re leery of the chemical additives, how about a more natural approach. Brew your coffee, and then add the flavorings to the cup. For example, brew a nice French roast blend, and then add a few drops of vanilla extract to the cup. You’ll probably find this a better flavoring than the artificial chemical additives anyway. Orange peel or a twist of lemon peel is nice. Or place a fresh cinnamon stick in the cup. These are all natural but effective flavorings that are a better alternative to the chemicals.

Whole Foods Market is a leading retailer of fresh, natural and organic foods, with over 265 stores in North America and the United Kingdom.  And if you haven’t already discovered, Whole Foods Stores are a natural choice for premium fresh roasted coffee beans.

Whole Foods Market features Allegro Coffee, a prominent national specialty coffee importer, roaster and distributor.  The Allegro Coffee Company, of Boulder Colorado, was founded by Jeffrey Cohn in 1985.  Whole Foods was one of Allegro’s early customers, and in 1995, Whole Foods acquired the company. 

Allegro continues to provide specialty premium coffee through wholesale distribution to many national accounts including coffeehouses, cafés and fine dining establishments.  For retail to the consumer, Allegro coffee is now exclusively distributed through Whole Foods Markets, the parent company.

Allegro sources the highest quality coffee beans from around the world.  As you would expect of Whole Foods, with a reputation for the best in natural and organic food products, Allegro partners with coffee growers who practice environmentally friendly and sustainable growing, harvesting and processing methods.

Allegro roasts the coffee beans in small batches to bring out the finest characteristics and flavors.  At roast completion, coffees are vacuum packed in oxygen-impermeable bags.  To preserve freshness, the residual oxygen is removed and replaced with nitrogen prior to heat sealing the bag. 

These techniques maintain freshness for distribution to the Whole Foods Stores where the fresh roasted coffee is placed in bins for convenient display.  Shoppers can easily choose from an enticing variety of single origin coffees and blends.  The roasting date is clearly marked and displayed on each bin.  Typically, in the stores that I visit, the roasted coffee beans in the bins are not older than one week.

Customers help themselves scooping the beans they wish to buy into the provided coffee bags, marking on the bag the PLU (product look up code), and other information such as description and roast date if desired.

Some of the Whole Foods Stores offer in-store roasted Allegro coffee.  While perhaps enticing and a bit high-tech, in my experience, these smaller hot air roasting machines don’t produce a result that compares in taste and flavor to the coffees roasted by Allegro and packaged for distribution to the stores.

One of the conveniences I enjoy when buying coffee at Whole Foods is the opportunity to sample the variety.  It’s easy to pickup a small quantity, say an 1/8 pound of beans. I take the sample home and if I like the coffee and favor the roast, I can pickup a full 1/2 pound or more the next time I’m in the store.  We shop at Whole Foods frequently enough for other items, and it’s quick and easy to stop by the Allegro coffee section and see if there is something new to try, or pickup a recently roasted coffee that we already prefer.

For espresso, we’ve been enjoying the Organic Espresso Sierra.  A medium-dark roast blend with origins from Latin America and the Pacific Rim.  A nice, rich, full-bodied coffee with some chocolate and caramel tones.  With the fresh beans, I get a nice and consistent crema most of the time.

For drip, the Sulawesi Toraja is a favorite Indonesian that we particularly enjoy.  In my opinion, Indonesian coffees including Sulawesi and Sumatra are often over roasted.  I prefer the lighter medium roast for this coffee to bring out the best inherant characteristics.  A nice well-balanced acidity, rich body, and unique earthy overtones.  And hints of a sweet, caramel finish lingers nicely on the pallete.

See if there are any Whole Foods Stores located in your area.  Stop by and try some of the fresh roasted coffee.  I think you’ll be pleased.

For coffee freshness, premium quality and some of our favorite artisan coffee roasters, we prefer to buy most of our coffee beans online. But when it comes to filling in our every day coffee supply with coffee beans from the local store, we like Trader Joe’s.

A unique, health oriented gourmet grocery store, there are now over 230 Trader Joe’s locations in more than 23 states in the US. For gourmet food lovers looking for a healthful range of interesting and tasty food products, shopping at Trader Joe’s is always a rewarding food adventure. And for your every day coffee supply, they have a respectable lineup of coffee beans. At very reasonable coffee prices.

Trader Joe’s most popular coffees are:

French Roast – number one seller, sweet-pungent taste, smoky aroma, medium body.

Bay Blend – ultra roast, a style of roasting that burns off the acid to bring out the sweetness with a smoky aroma.

House Blend – blend of Sumatra and Colombian beans, highly aromatic, a nice all around coffee at a full-city roast.

Colombian Supremo – rich aroma, full body, full-city roast, smoky overtones. One of the most popular coffee origins in the US.

Kona- 100% certified island grown Kona coffee (Kona, Hawaii), rich aroma, medium body and nice smooth flavor.

Moka Java – the classic blend of bright, chocolatey Ethiopian beans with sweet, smooth Java beans produces a smooth and balanced flavor. Mocha Java is one of the oldest and traditional blends of Arabian and Indonesian beans popular world wide for over 400 years.

Kauai Coffee – another popular Hawaiian grown coffee, slightly darker roast, sweet earthy aroma, delicate taste.

Organic Coffee Blend – 100% certified organic Peruvian coffee beans – a bit spicy, blended with more mild 100% certified Mexican beans, creates a complex aroma, medium body, good flavor

Italian Roast- blend of spicy Costa Rican beans, pungent New-Guinea beans and full-bodied Colombian Excelso beans, brought to a full dark Italian roast. Popular for making espresso, remember that the darkest roasts yield more a more carbonized bean that can over-shadow the underlying coffee characteristics and flavors. You are often tasting more of the roast flavor and less of the coffee bean flavor.

I always like to encourage everyone to reach a little, and expand your enjoyment of different coffees. While you’ll always gravitate toward your favorites and preferences, sample the variety of coffees out there. It’s part of the gourmet coffee adventure.

We were in a Trader Joe’s recently and found a fun little sample pack of four coffees. The package is called the “Coffee House Collection”. These little 2.5 oz packs of whole bean coffees are perfect for sampling the Trader Joes brand. 2.5 ounces of coffee beans is enough to brew about 4 to 8 cups of coffee, depending on the strength you prefer. The suggested 10 cup yield is probably on the weak side. Try them first and see if you like ‘em before you buy the full can.

The Coffee House Collection includes:

French Roast- the standard Trader Joe’s dark French roast. (see notes above)

Colombian Peaberry – a tiny bean prized for it’s remarkable concentration of flavor. Normally, the coffee berry (the fruit as is picked from a coffee plant) yields two coffee beans, but the Peaberry yields only a single coffee bean per berry. A medium roast, smooth with a nutty, well-balanced taste.

Organic Peruvian Cafe Femenino – organic, fair-trade certified coffee, produced by an all women (femenino) group in Peru. Medium roast, nutty and slightly sweet, chocolate tones.

Bay Blend- combination of Colombian Excelso and Mexican Arabica beans, deeply roasted, one of Trader Joe’s darker roasts, medium body, full flavor. (see notes above)

If there’s a Trader Joe’s location in your area, give them a try. Not a bad choice at all for your everyday supply of coffee beans.

Here’s a current list of Trader Joe’s Locations. See if there’s one near you?