These Are The Coffee Beans To Buy If You Love Chocolate
Most non-coffee drinkers are likely to think of it as a dark, bitter drink. In reality, coffee is almost as complex a conversation as wine (via Wall Street Journal). Training your palette can be an enriching experience to broaden your coffee horizons. But for those who know what they like, it can simply help to know what types of coffee are going to yield your preferred flavor.
One flavor addition that can be popular among coffee drinkers is chocolate. The dark, rich tones of well-brewed coffee can evoke some of the same sensory responses as a bar of high-quality dark chocolate. In fact, these two flavors often pair well together. While there are flavored coffees available that will have chocolate flavoring added to them, just coffee beans can also have a heavy chocolate flavor without anything extra.
Chocolate is one of the most commonly-found flavors in coffee. According to Espresso & Coffee Guide, 60% of the world's coffee is grown in Brazil. In this country, coffee is grown at between 2,000 and 4,000 feet above sea level; a far lower altitude than other places where coffee is grown in Central and South America as well as East Africa (via Coffee Review). Coffee beans that are grown under these conditions, according to Angry Espresso, tend to produce chocolatey and nutty flavor notes. While altitude and origins can have a huge impact on a coffee's flavor, there's more to it than just where it's grown.
Roast and brew method can amplify chocolate notes
Another great way to track down a coffee bean with a rich chocolatey flavor is to look for a darker roast. Angry Espresso notes that many coffee beans which are a medium-dark or dark roast will have a flavor profile more akin to chocolate, and, often times, nuts. When fresh coffee beans are roasted, the sugars present in them are able to caramelize. This helps to express the cacao and chocolate notes present in the coffee. Those sugars tend to remain present in lighter roasts, giving them a tendency to lean towards sweeter, fruitier notes that their counterparts (via Angry Espresso).
Of course these aren't the only influences on a coffee's flavor. According to Bean & Bean, coffee can be influenced by the characteristics of the soil where it was grown, how it was cultivated, the methods used to clean the fruit from the bean, and of course finally how its brewed. Seattle Coffee Gear notes that drip methods are great for getting a balanced flavor from any bean, but press brewing methods, like a French press, tend to amplify chocolatey flavors even more. So, if you're looking for a chocolatey coffee that doesn't have any added flavoring, look for something from a low altitude country in a medium-dark roast, and make sure to break out your French Press for a taste similar to melting a chocolate bar into your morning java.