2y ago

Honey processed beans, bourbon smell

Over the weekend, I bought some single origin specialty coffee beans, honey processed. I did use the beans with my V60 and it was delicious.

I left the filter on my counter top for a few hours and when I went to throw it away I noticed a strong bourbon smell, it was a delicious smell.

I wonder if I could make my coffee taste like that. What is going on here? Are there techniques to make honey processed coffee like bourbon taste?

Really appreciate the insights!

9 comments

Some processes can have alcohol notes, due to fermentation. Like Carbonic Maceration coffee. Some natural and honey too but it depends, they’re less funky than cm or anaerobics. Then there’s also barrel aged coffees, typically in rhum barrels. It’s more like they’re flavored this way. They’re more common toward Christmas
- This beans that I bought don't mention anything about being aged in a barrel. This is the bean https://kaffeekommune.de/products/costa-rica-sabana-redonda
  Do you know if there are any techniques to brew coffee in a V60 to have this bourbon taste?
  
  Yeah I didn’t mean this one, but in general. You can’t make a coffee tastes like bourbon by how you brew it. But you can choose coffees which have notes like wine, dark cherry, liquor etc. These are probably what will give you boozy notes. As per the brewing, I feel boozy notes are accentuated with a sweeter profile, likely with an higher extraction. One way to get that, for example, is trying a one or two minute long bloom. You can also try to grind finer or using an higher water temperature. But long bloom works well in my experience. Happy bean hunting!

A few kinds of coffee processes remove the cherry by allowing it to ferment, which can create alcoholic/boozy flavors in coffee. I don't speak German but I did a bit of a deep dive on honey processes in Costa Rica and apparently "black diamond" honey process takes 22 days or more to ferment the cherries slowly (this roaster is probably sourcing from the same or a nearby farm). Also, having the warm water sit in the grounds probably accentuates the fermented/funky/wine-like smells. Next time you taste that coffee, try and see if there is any whiskey flavors or smells.
Side note: whiskey/fermented grain mash is a recognized coffee flavor note in the World Coffee Research Sensory Lexicon as well as smoky flavors you might expect in a bourbon.
It is also common to age coffee in bourbon barrels as others have mentioned.
- Thank you for the research and the pointers. I will try the beans again today and see how it goes.

There’s defintely more where that came from. Try finding naturally processed or anaerobic coffees, or coffees with some more exotic fermentations.
Tasting notes to look out for are wine or rum, or things like ripe tropical fruit, that kind of stuff.

9 comments