Are chemicals used to make flavored coffee?

by Matt
(Dearborn, Michigan)

QUESTION:

I love flavored coffee, but am concerned about how "natural" the flavors are. If I buy hazelnut flavored coffee, for instance, is the flavoring done with natural hazelnut?

ANSWER:

Matt, hi

That's an excellent question...with a fairly scary answer. Most coffee flavoring is done with chemicals.

The flavoring of coffee beans is done after roasting. The big issue here is that roasters use a particular chemical to help get the flavoring into the bean. That chemical is called propylene glycol.

If propylene glycol sounds familiar it's because it is also used in the manufacture of anti-freeze. I said the answer was scary!

One company that does offer flavored coffee without using propylene glycol is Flavorbean Coffee.

You can also learn more about this on our natural flavors for coffee page....