Keeping it simple is required, Let me give a couple of examples. Cherry balsam as a flavour or Juniper as a floral (aroma). WhIle the former is probably a popular candy, which many may have had. Similarly, the Juniper. I have no idea about them. The folks here can call me ignorant, but the fact is when I see the notes like this, I suddenly start wondering what the **** are they? Do we really need to complicate the flavour to this extent?
Please don’t get me wrong, Googling this, cherry balsam is a herbal medicinal sweet and is a bit complex to explain it. Imagine that on the cup. Do I need this on my cup at any time of the day, let alone as an Americano in the morning? No. 😂 Of course, I don’t have to buy them.
Juniper is a floral, which we expect as an aroma. Again, many / some may not know. Dr Google is beaming and suggesting think of Gin as their berries are used to flavour gin. That’s nice, but it is not that simple. One risks getting lost and may actually start disliking the coffee, which is not a good outcome for a roaster, IMO. So, it is not surprising that our brew guy @MWJB had something to state about one of the bags.
The bottom line is there is a need to simplify things on the bag, which the roasters always do, but try and keep the flavours simple. If these are not possible, it is important the roaster at least provide a little more details about these niche flavours on their web site. Dave’s thoughts on what the roasters may want to do are valuable.
We can understand the thinking that a roaster might not stand out if their beans look as generic as the competition. Because, it is difficult to justify the expensive price tag. A niche and/or a less obvious flavour might be construed as a differentiation point. Such a differentiation might not carry the right message to the wider audience, who may not know those less-obvious notes.
But, a very good roaster may not need to go after these less-obvious ones. Because, we have a pool of roasters in the UK for an example. Assuming all of them are good, there are only a handful of go to roasters for passionate coffee drinkers like us. We can count them. The decision to consistently buy from these selected club of go to roasters are not exclusively based on the notes alone.
