What Do Taste Notes Really Mean?

From Peaches to Coffee: Understanding Flavor

It’s peach season, and one of the small pleasures in life is biting into a ripe freestone peach. Tart, sweet, juicy, and acidic. I absolutely love peaches as a summertime snack. And while eating one, you might notice hints of other fruits—plum, pineapple, apricot, maybe even a touch of raspberry. But it still tastes, unmistakably, like a peach.

Coffee works the same way.

What Do Taste Notes Really Mean?

When browsing a selection from a local or online roaster, you might wonder: Does it really taste like blackberry and lemon? Or whatever flavor notes are printed on the bag. Based on the description, you can expect flavors similar to blackberry and lemon, maybe even a floral aroma. But you can be certain—it still tastes like coffee.

These descriptions are called taste notes. They’re not additives or artificial flavors. They’re the natural result of how coffee is grown, processed, and roasted. And they help you choose coffees that match your preferences—whether you’re chasing juicy fruit, rich chocolate, or something in between.

Where Taste Begins

Taste starts at origin. Coffee growers manage their crops to express certain flavor profiles based on variety, soil, altitude, climate, and post-harvest processing. Whether it’s a fruity, natural-processed coffee from Costa Rica or a bold, earthy one from Indonesia, the foundation of flavor is laid at the farm.

Processing Matters

After harvest, coffee cherries are processed to remove the fruit from the bean. This step plays a huge role in flavor:

• Washed (Wet) Process: The fruit is removed using water, leaving a clean-tasting bean that highlights acidity and clarity. Expect citrus or floral notes.
• Natural (Dry) Process: The whole cherry is dried with the fruit still intact, allowing sugars to absorb into the bean. This produces bold, fruity flavors—think berries or tropical fruit.
• Honey Process: A hybrid method where some of the fruit’s mucilage is left on during drying. It creates a balanced cup with gentle sweetness and notes of caramel or red fruit.

Each method brings out different aspects of the coffee’s character, shaped by the grower’s choices and the environment.

Roasting Unlocks It All

Roasting is where the tastes carefully planned by the grower are released. It’s the moment when all the work done at origin—variety selection, soil management, climate adaptation, and processing—comes to life in the cup.

• Light Roasts: Bright acidity, fruit-forward, and floral—great for showcasing origin
• Medium Roasts: Balanced sweetness, notes of caramel, stone fruit, and nuts
• Dark Roasts: Bold, smoky, and rich—think dark chocolate and toasted flavors

Roasting doesn’t add taste notes—it reveals what’s already there, unlocking the vault of taste crafted by the farmer.

Whether you’re sipping a peachy Ethiopian or a chocolatey Guatemalan, taste notes are your guide to the experience. They help you explore the diversity of coffee while staying grounded in what it is: a beautiful, complex fruit that still tastes like coffee.

Taste Is Personal

Coffee tasting isn’t a science—it’s a conversation. One person might taste ripe mango while another gets dark chocolate. Neither is wrong. Our palates are shaped by memory, culture, and experience, which makes coffee one of the most personal drinks out there.

You’ll hear plenty of opinions about what coffee should taste like. But the truth is, the best cup is the one you enjoy drinking. Whether you’re chasing wild fruit notes or just want something smooth and comforting, we’re here to help you find what feels right.

Thanks for trekking along,
Blaine
Founder & Roaster