You hold the steaming mug close to your face, close your eyes, and breathe in the aroma as it swirls into your lovely little nostrils. There's some electric magic going on and you can't quite explain it. You carefully put your lips on the rim of the mug, slowly begin to tilt it, and do that weird slurp sound coffee professionals do to properly aerate so you don't burn the sh*t out of your tongue. 

Then there it is—wait, what the hell, why does this taste like BERRIES?!

Flavored Coffee vs. Coffee Tasting Notes

First, we want to point out that Rootless Coffee Co. does not add any flavoring to our coffee. We're REALLY proud of that. Why? Because you get 100% coffee without any of the weird oils or additives that some other folks are doing.

Maybe you like hazelnut creamer, sure, we won't yuck your yum there. But aside from our seasonal bourbon barrel-aged coffee, we let the coffee we source and way we roast do the talking.

So let's get into it. What the flip are "coffee tasting notes?"

Coffee Tasting Notes

These are the lil descriptors you'll see on the back of our bags or on the product pages. Let's start with a fan favorite: Out Of Your Element.

"Sweet and balanced with a creamy body, notes of milk chocolate and citrus."

When some folks see this, they reach out and ask if there's milk because they're lactose intolerant, or chocolate because they're allergic to it. Fear not, fellow emailer, this is all natural, baby.

The acidity, bitterness, sweetness, saltiness, and sourness (those are all words?) play a role in those phenomena. Check it out on the product pages!

It’s just like wine snobs. Craft coffee is all about the full experience.

When we source green coffee from around the world, it's the region, elevation, farm, and so on that play a role in the way a coffee will naturally taste. Then when we do our small batch roasting, we dial it in to really bring out those flavors we love.

Again, we don't really do "weird" tasting coffee like some people do. We like the idea of it working at both a hipster coffee shop, and your parents' place where they'll take a sip and go, "Huh, this is actually pretty good. It's not Starbucks, but I'll take it." Which my parents don't do, because they only like charred, burnt corporate coffee BUT ANYWAY.

We want to help you navigate the craft coffee experience by not only trying fun coffee we create, but picking a region you dig, tasting notes you love, and then having that inspire what you regularly order (hint hint: we have coffee subscriptions) or help you venture out to new tastes.

Flavored Coffee

We know you've heard about this. You either found us because of this trend, or you're getting slammed with their ads because you dig Rootless. We won't say the name, but we don't have any bones to pick with anyone. Different strokes for different folks. Same church, different pew. However you wanna describe it.

What happens with flavored coffee is often an added oil to the beans themselves after roasting. It gets mixed in and then you have a general added taste to a more straight forward coffee. "Pumpkin Chocolate EXPLOSION" is just a few little oils thrown in. 

Here, it all depends if you add creamer or milk to your morning mug. The coffee on its own can be a little odd, but diluted it with more sweetness usually does the trick.

We really like our No X In Espresso because it tastes like dark chocolate, and it's super smooth. But again, nothing weird added!

What we've experienced is REALLY INTENSE AROMAS and not much follow through. For example, in my younger, more vulnerable years, I was sold on a chocolate donut coffee. My house smelled like a bakery. My eyes were watering with happiness. Then I took a sip and it tasted like broken cardboard.

My nose deceived me, my tastebuds abandoned me, but at least my heart forgave me. 

If you're looking for an aroma AND taste follow through, we suggest our almighty BERRY KISS. It smells like fruity pebbles and tastes like heaven.

The twist? NO. ADDED. STUFF.

That's what makes Rootless so fun. We let our taste do the heavy lifting, our skill in roasting (hi Garrett), and the product something we genuinely love. 

Who Wins? Flavored Coffee vs. Coffee Tasting Notes

I mean, it's all preference, really. We won't be butts and ever tell you to NOT try something. We just like being excited about our coffee naturally tasting a certain way.

You can always expect quality and care put into every one of our roasts. Because we're coffee nerds and wannabe scientists. Most importantly, we're traveling everywhere and trying things to get inspired, then put it into our own methods of mayhem.

If you dig the flavored stuff, we suggest buying flavored creamer or syrup if you want to add it to our coffee selection.

If you wanna raw dog this delicious small batch, fresh roasted Rootless Coffee, then we're more than happy to guide you on a journey. Tweet or DM us on instagram and we'll hit you back as soon as possible.

Sounds good? Good.

Happy shopping. Happy sippin'.

-Rootless Rogues