Flavored coffees are good but inexpensive coffees, roasted to a medium to medium-dark brown, and mixed with liquid flavoring agents that soak into the beans. The flavorings are a modified version of those used throughout the food industry. You occasionally may see actual bits of nuts, fruit, or spice mixed in with the beans, but these components merely dress up the mix and give it a natural look. The real flavoring is done by the added liquids. Some specialty-coffee sellers refuse to carry flavored coffees for various practical and philosophical reasons, but let us assume that our hypothetical coffee store does carry them. You will immediately notice that they bear names easily identified as part of the American pop gourmet lexicon. If it sounds like a name of a candy (hazelnut creme) or a bar drink (piña colada), for example, it is a flavored coffee. Or if its name includes the words creme, vanilla, chocolate, or the name of any nut, fruit, or spice, you can be certain it is a flavored coffee. To my knowledge, the only country to appear in the flavored-coffee lexicon is Ireland, and it should not require much reflection to deduce that Irish Creme does not describe a coffee grown in Ireland.
