Early on roasting beans for myself, it was very popular to buy flavored coffee beans. French Vanilla or Hazelnut were my favorites. They made my kitchen smell amazing. I bought some bean flavoring oils and flavored one of my batches of beans I had roasted. At this time, I didn’t understand about specialty grade coffee.
The coffee was good, and I liked the idea of flavored coffee instead of using sugary syrups to flavor my coffee. The downside is that I had to drink that same flavored coffee every day. There was no way to change it up, unless I wanted to roast more beans and flavor them something different. I didn’t like that idea, because, at the time, finding green coffee beans was harder to do, and I had a limited supply.
I also looked more into the flavoring oils and what goes into them to make them absorb into the fresh roasted coffee beans. While they have obviously been FDA approved, I didn’t like all the chemicals that have to be added to get them to flavor the coffee beans. At that point I decided not to use them anymore, which is why I don’t offer them as an option.
Part of why I started Galaxy Girl Coffee was to help people be a little healthier in their coffee options. If you start with great coffee, you don’t have to put as much stuff in it to have a great drink. This means less sugar, fewer calories, and a cleaner cup of coffee. To me, putting a flavoring additive on the beans goes against this idea.
There is also the respect I have for the growers and processors of our coffee beans. Almost all of my coffee beans are specialty grade, excluding the robusta beans in a couple of blends. Specialty grade coffee takes a lot more time and care on the part of the growers, harvesters, and processors. Why would I want to ruin all their hard work by covering up the natural flavors in these amazing coffee beans?
I understand that some people want certain flavors in their coffee. I urge them to look for beans that naturally have those flavors. There are so many amazing coffees that have a variety of flavors like blueberries, cocoa, toffee, citrus, to name a few. I know our selection at Galaxy Girl Coffee is limited, but only slightly. We are always willing to help you on your coffee journey and will work to find beans that you will enjoy, without adding anything to them.
I agree about the flavored coffees – I avoid them almost as much as I avoid the syrups, which is always. I have had some flavored coffee beans before that I liked, but the flavors came from actual pieces of (dried food) mixed in with the beans that got ground and brewed along with them. The flavors they impart are subtle, which I found preferable anyway. On rare occasions I do want a flavored coffee drink, however they are nearly impossible to find without the terrible sugary syrups!