Whiskey barrel-aged coffee is exactly what it sounds like, with one important distinction: nobody is pouring whiskey into your morning coffee.
Instead, green coffee beans spend time in a previously used whiskey barrel before roasting. During that time, the coffee can pick up some of the barrel’s aroma and character, creating a cup that feels a little richer, deeper, and less predictable than your standard roast.
Apparently regular coffee needed hobbies.
What actually happens?
Before coffee beans are roasted, they’re green and surprisingly receptive to the environment around them. When those beans spend time inside a reclaimed whiskey barrel, they can take on aromatic character from the wood and what the barrel previously held.
After aging, the beans are removed and roasted like coffee. No cocktail shaker required.
For GUATEMALAN BADDIE, Guatemalan coffee is aged in a reclaimed whiskey barrel before being medium roasted.
Does whiskey barrel-aged coffee contain alcohol?
Barrel aging does not mean whiskey is poured into the finished coffee. The green beans are aged in a previously used barrel, then roasted and brewed as coffee.
So yes, the 9 a.m. meeting can remain regrettably professional.
What does whiskey barrel-aged coffee taste like?
Barrel aging can add another layer of character beyond the coffee’s natural origin flavors. Think deeper aromatics, warm barrel character, and a more unusual cup than you’d get from a traditional roast.
It makes sense for someone who already likes specialty coffee but wants something a little different.
Or someone who looked at regular coffee and thought, fine, but can she have more personality?
Is it flavored coffee?
Not in the traditional sense.
Flavored coffee typically gets its added flavor through flavoring applied to roasted coffee. Barrel-aged coffee gets its distinctive character from the aging step that happens while the beans are still green, before roasting.
One is added flavor. The other is part of how the coffee is handled before it ever reaches the roaster.
Who is whiskey barrel-aged coffee for?
Probably you if you like unusual specialty coffees, deeper and more complex cups, or simply want something beyond your everyday roast.
It also makes a very good choice for the coffee person who has already tried approximately everything and remains annoyingly difficult to impress.
Meet GUATEMALAN BADDIE
Guatemalan specialty coffee. Reclaimed whiskey barrel. Then medium roasted.
A little extra? Obviously.
Want the story behind the coffee? Read Guatemalan Baddie: A Piece of Home.
Or browse the full SINGLE ORIGIN AMIGAS collection.