What Is Flavored Coffee Supposed to Taste Like?

 

Vanilla, caramel, hazelnut, chocolate.

Those flavors need no introduction in coffee. But say cherry, white lemon, and blue raspberry and people stop for a second.

Good. That pause is exactly why we made Popsicle Firecracker flavored coffee.

Flavor52 was never meant to be 52 versions of what people already expect flavored coffee to be. We knew some releases would feel familiar, some would trigger nostalgia, and some would make people ask what exactly were we thinking.

Firecracker is one of those. Cherry. White lemon. Blue raspberry.

It may not sound like coffee. That’s kind of the point.

Before we finalized it, we bought the actual Firecracker Popsicles and tasted them alongside the coffee samples. The goal wasn’t to make “fruit flavored coffee.” It was to recreate the unmistakable experience of that red, white, and blue Popsicle.

Cherry and blue raspberry fit surprisingly well against the deeper character of the coffee. Lemon was the trickier note. Since we were able to use it lightly, it blended into the medium light roast’s natural citrus qualities instead of turning sharp or taking over. The three notes had to work together closely enough that what came through was Firecracker, not three competing fruit flavors.

Will everyone hear “cherry, lemon, and blue raspberry flavored coffee” and immediately crave a big mug of it? Not sure. 

But expanding flavored coffee means making room for more than the usual suspects. Vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and hazelnut are classics for a reason. We’re not trying to replace them. We’re interested in what happens beyond them.

There are thousands of flavors people already love. Candy. Desserts. Fruit. Frozen treats. The foods that take you straight back to a particular summer, birthday party, or gas station snack aisle.

Some feel obvious in coffee. The more interesting ones are the flavors that don’t. Until you taste them. That’s the broader concept behind Flavor52.

Maybe you don’t think cherry, lemon, and blue raspberry belong in coffee.

That’s fair. But remember, neither did caramel once.

 

 

MISSION STATUS: Expanding Flavored Coffee 
Flavors Released: 13 / 52
Ice Cream Truck Season 2: 5 of 9 weeks
Mondays Missed: 0
World Record Status: On track