How To Flavor Coffee Beans - 4 Delicious Methods For Amazing Coffee!

How To Flavor Coffee Beans – 4 Delicious Methods For Amazing Coffee!

Last updated on March 3rd, 2024 at 11:41

Learning how to flavor coffee beans with the 4 methods in this article will have you making tip top flavored coffee in no time. One method in particular will perhaps get your culinary creative juices going and making flavored coffee beans that nobody else can make, keep your eyes open for that particular technique.

Do you love flavored coffee and want to make you own at home?

Yes?

Then keep reading for the details!

What Are Flavored Coffee Beans?

Flavored coffee beans are coffee beans that have had a flavoring oil, syrup or natural spice added to freshly roasted coffee beans shortly after they have been roasted. Typically, the flavoring elements are added as the coffee beans are cooling down.

Coffee beans while hot are more porous and open to taking on new flavors which is why the process of adding flavors is done while they are still warm.

Flavored coffee beans are not something new as flavored coffee dates back a few centuries when the Arabians loved to drink their coffee with aromas of nuts and spices.

Today, the coffee bean flavors available are literally unlimited – as far and wide as your imagination permits, with a special niche in the coffee industry specializing in producing delicious flavor-infused coffee beans.

What Are Flavored Coffee Beans
Flavored Coffee Beans Are Better Than Sugar Based Syrup

Read: How to brew strong coffee

Where Does The Flavor Come From?

With mass-produced coffee beans, the most common way of flavoring them is with the use of a syrup or coffee flavoring oils.

The flavoring syrups and oils are a highly concentrated blend of synthetic and natural flavors which are designed with a flavor in mind. A very simple syrup, and commonly used flavors are vanilla, hazelnut, coconut and cacao as these flavors don’t overpower or overwhelm the natural flavor of coffee and go well with the coffee beans.

Cinnamon and caramel are two other popular flavors used to flavor high-quality coffee beans.

It is best to flavor freshly roasted coffee beans just as they have finished the roasting process and at a point while they are still warm (not roasting hot) and cooling down, as this is the point where they will absorb and take on more flavors.

The flavor can also come from the spices themselves. This is, by a long shot, the best way to flavor your coffee beans. It simply involves doing little else other than placing an ample amount of the spice or what it is that you want to flavor your beans with in your coffee canister and that is it.

Just don’t forget to remove the spice once your desired level of flavor has been reached, otherwise it can overpower your beans.

If you find a coffee shop that flavors their beans in this way, then you are probably in my coffee shop!

Where Does The Flavor Come From
This Is Where The Best Flavor Comes From!

Read: What to do with old coffee beans

4 Delicious Ways To Flavor Your Coffee Beans

In this section I will talk about 4 ways to flavor your coffee beans and give you a couple of examples that you can follow.

How To Use Coffee Bean Flavoring Oils

After the roasting and degassing of the beans and while they are still warm, flavoring oils are added by spraying them on to the coffee beans. Commercial roasters spray the beans with oils as they are tumbled or tossed and stirred around in a large mixer for 15 min to half an hour.

Once they are evenly coated with the flavoring oil, they sit and cool for 20 to 30 mins.

The use of specialty coffee bean oil to make flavored coffee beans is a very popular flavoring method as the process is very easy to do. It can also be replicated at home.

Simply heat your beans a little in the oven then add 1 to 3 teaspoons of the flavoring oil per pound of coffee beans. Sprinkle or spray evenly and toss your warm beans by hand and leave them for half an hour to an hour to absorb the flavor.

The longer you leave your beans sitting, the more the flavor will be absorbed into the coffee beans.

When you check on Amazon you will find there is an unlimited number of specialty coffee bean oils and flavors to choose from. Unfortunately, this method does involve the use of synthetic flavor chemicals.

This method, as you can see, requires no specialized equipment at all.

How To Use Spices To Flavor Coffee Beans

Using spices to flavor your coffee beans is easy. When you want to make excellent, great tasting coffee with a hint of flavor that you are seeking to enhance them with use your favorite high-quality beans and the best quality spice that you can find.

In this example, I’ll be using cocoa beans.

Simply get your coffee beans, put them in your coffee canister. For best results and storage, use a proper coffee canister that is airtight and has a one-way valve.

Chop up some cocoa beans and put them in your coffee canister. Store your canister in a cool dark place. The best place is your fridge.

The longer you keep your spices, in this case, cocoa beans, in your coffee canister, the more they will absorb the scent and the richer flavor of your coffee will.

How To Use Spices To Flavor Coffee Beans
Infusing Spices Is The Best Way Of Flavoring Coffee Beans

How To Infuse Coffee Beans With Vanilla – How To Make Vanilla Flavored Coffee Beans

This is so easy. Take a fresh vanilla pod or three (per half pound of coffee beans). Split your vanilla beans down the middle and add them to your coffee canister with coffee beans. Shake your canister thoroughly, turning it upside down, right side up and shaking from right to left to ensure your vanilla halves are well mixed into your coffee beans.

Wait at least 24 hours for the vanilla flavor to be infused into your coffee beans.

Make a cup of coffee to test the flavor. If it hits the spot and has the flavor that you desire, remove the vanilla halves. If your cup of coffee is not what you are seeking, leave the vanilla halves there for 12 hours and test again.

Repeat until you get the coffee taste that you love and enjoy.

How To Infuse Coffee Beans With CBD

There are two main ways to infuse coffee beans with CBD. One way is by using the CBD Oil itself.

Step 1: Heat Your Beans

Lay your beans flat out on a tray and then put them in your oven at a low temperature of 180 to 200 degrees for a few minutes. The goal here is not to roast the beans, just to heat them, so they are warm and more susceptible to taking on the flavor of your CBD Oil or Hemp Oil.

Step 2: Have Your Spray

Spray your beans until they are covered in CBD Oil. This will take about 15 ml or 3 teaspoons of CBD Oil and then leave them for 20 minutes to half an hour and toss them thoroughly.

The second method involves the use of the CBD as a ground powder. Add approximately 15 grams per half pound of coffee beans. Place the ground CDB powder into your beans and shake your coffee canister to evenly distribute the ground CBD or hemp powder.

Leave your beans for a day or two for them to take on the flavor of the CBD.

Note: The alleged health benefits associated with CBD may or may not be infused into the coffee beans with the two above methods. I’m not a Doctor nor a bio-chemist and make no such claims. You will get the flavor of the CBD fused into your coffee beans.

How To Use Syrups To Flavor Coffee Beans

This is the method used by coffee shops to flavor their coffee. This is how Starbucks flavor their coffee.

The syrup method does not flavor your coffee beans but simply adds flavor to your coffee. My own personal preference is to avoid this method due to the high sugar content. If you must, use unrefined brown sugar or coconut sugar as the glycemic index rating is lower.

Making a simple syrup to flavor your coffee is easy. Seek out to make your syrup with 50% sugar and 50% water and add the flavoring that you desire, such as vanilla, orange peels, ginger, caramel coconut, hazelnut or whatever you so wish.

There is no limit to the coffee bean syrup flavors that you can make at home. It only takes a couple of minutes to make and about a day or so for the flavor to be drawn out of the spices to flavor your syrup.

How To Flavor Your Coffee Beans With Alcohol

Flavoring your coffee beans with alcohol is every bit as easy and effortless as the previous mentioned techniques.

To demonstrate how to best do this, let’s talk about how to infuse your coffee beans with Whiskey!

How To Infuse Coffee Beans With Whiskey

Who doesn’t want to try a Jack Daniel’s flavored coffee?

By far the best way of achieving this goal is by infusion and is likely to take up a whole bottle or half bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

Start by taking your whole coffee beans and putting them into a mason jar. Decant and pour your Jack Daniel’s into the mason jar with the coffee beans.

Initially, your beans will rise and float. Leave approximately a palm or a touch more at the bottom of your mason jar. Store your beans and whiskey in a dark and cool area. Your fridge is a perfect place.

When your beans are ready, they will sink to the bottom as they absorb the whiskey. Taste and test the coffee and whiskey solution as an indication of the flavor. If it tastes great and is what you want, remove the beans from the mixture.

Pat dry your beans with a clean cloth and store them in your coffee canister.

You can enjoy the rest of your Jack Daniel’s whiskey and coffee liquid solution as a unique and great alcoholic beverage to be enjoyed with coca-cola or as you see fit.

Jack Daniels Flavored Coffee
Try Jack Daniels Flavored Coffee!

Frequently Asked Questions About How To Flavor Coffee Beans

The best way of flavoring coffee beans is to infuse them with fresh spices, nuts or food items that you want to flavor your coffee beans with. Simply chop the fresh food item and store them in a coffee canister with your coffee beans for 24 hours and brew a test cup of coffee to find out if the taste is as you’d like it to be.

If the flavor is not prominent enough, remove the old food item and add the same food item freshly chopped. It is best that you replace the day old one with fresh and leave for a few hours more and test.

Yes, some of the common coffee additives used to flavor coffee beans include nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Exotic spices like cardamom can also be used. Instead of adding them during the brewing process, you can use them to flavor your coffee beans.

Flavoring your coffee naturally is best and is thankfully the most effortless way of making flavored coffee. Simply add a sufficient amount of the spice or food item that you want to flavor your coffee with.

For example, take two cinnamon sticks, chop them and add them to an airtight canister with your coffee beans and wait 24 hours and make a test cup of coffee to try out the flavor.

A lot of flavorings are great for coffee; here are some of the best ones that you can try:

  • White chocolate.
  • Hazelnut.
  • Mint mocha.
  • Caramel.
  • Vanilla.
  • Pumpkin spice.
  • Cinnamon.
  • Chocolate.

 Warm spices are excellent choices: cardamom, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon are well worth trying.

A Starbucks baristas use the company’s own brand of coffee syrups. At home, and a better choice in my opinion is Da Vinci, Torani and Monin as these have sugar free options which are obviously better for your health. They also have a greater variety of flavors.

Frappé-Ing it All Up – How To Flavor Coffee Beans

You have read this far and learned how to flavor coffee beans using a few different techniques. You can now literally flavor your beans to any flavor that you want to. In my own opinion, the best method is to infuse with natural spices. It is the healthiest way and the most natural way.

Infusing with your favorite alcoholic drink and ending up with amaretto, southern comfort or Jack Daniel’s flavored coffee beans is also a great idea for the coffee creationist in you.

Join our cool coffee community and take part by sharing your own excellent flavored coffee recipe with us all.  Find us on Facebook/Meta!

Derek Marshall, a certified barista by the Specialty Coffee Association possesses over two decades of experience in specialty coffee shops. He holds professional certifications for coffee brewing and barista skills. Derek is also an author with authoritative books covering various coffee topics including specialty coffee, sustainability and coffee, coffee brewing, coffee recipes, coffee cocktails and books focusing on Brazilian coffee, Vietnamese coffee, Indonesian coffee and Malaysian coffee. As a barista for over two decades, Derek Marshall has worked in specialty coffee shops across the United Kingdom, Spain, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. His expertise extends to the distinct coffee cultures, specialty beverages, and brewing techniques of each nation. Functioning as a coffee consultant, Derek charges US$50 per hour. To learn more about Derek Marshall and Latte Love Brew, visit his About Me Page. For coffee inquiries, contact him at +34-639-410-375 or Derek@LatteLoveBrew.com, mentioning your name and location

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