The Coffee That Tasted Like Sweet Potato

What’s the deal with tasting notes?

If you have spent any time drinking specialty coffee, you will almost certainly have come across tasting notes printed on the front of a bag, often describing flavours that range from the familiar to the unexpectedly specific.

Some of these descriptors are easy to grasp, such as chocolate, nuts, or dried fruit, while others can feel far less intuitive. A friend from South America recently visited and brought a high-end specialty coffee from Ecuador with tasting notes of Lemon Verbena, Matcha, Honey and Sweet Potato.

This raised a few questions. Do Sweet Potatoes taste the same in Ecuador as they do in the UK? Do Ecuadorians have different palates that find Sweet Potato a desirable tasting note in coffee?

Could I taste the sweet potato in the coffee? Not really - perhaps a gentle earthiness and sweetness. 

Tasting notes function as descriptive tools, offering a way of communicating what a coffee might taste like when brewed. A coffee might genuinely resemble sweet potato to a professional taster in Ecuador, but that remains a personal interpretation that may not be widely shared.

In this article, we will look at how coffee professionals derive tasting notes, why coffee can resemble flavours such as fruit or chocolate, and how to interpret them in a way that feels both practical and grounded.

Why do tasting notes exist?

At their core, tasting notes exist to help you make a decision about whether you are likely to enjoy a particular coffee, particularly when you cannot taste it in advance.

Within specialty coffee, it is considered that three pieces of information tend to matter most to consumers: origin, roast level, and sensory description. While origin and roast level provide useful context, it is often the tasting notes that give the clearest indication of what the drinking experience might bring.

Although tasting notes are not precise, they remain a useful tool for navigating a wide and often complex range of coffees.

What is “flavour” in coffee?

When we talk about flavour in coffee, we are not referring to a single sense, but rather to a combination of sensory inputs that are processed together by the brain.

Taste (on the tongue)

The human tongue is capable of detecting the basic tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and umami. In the context of coffee, the most important of these are acidity (sourness) and bitterness.

These two elements form the backbone of a coffee’s taste profile and are strongly influenced by roast level. Lighter roasts tend to preserve more acidity while exhibiting lower levels of bitterness, whereas darker roasts generally reduce perceived acidity and increase bitterness through the formation of roast-derived compounds.

It is also worth noting that caffeine, despite its association with bitterness, contributes only a small proportion of the overall bitter perception in coffee. Most bitterness arises from other compounds that develop during roasting.

Aroma (smell)

While taste provides structure, aroma is responsible for the majority of what we perceive as flavour.

When you drink coffee, volatile aromatic compounds travel from the mouth to the nasal cavity through a process known as retronasal olfaction. This allows you to perceive smells while the coffee is in your mouth, rather than only through smelling the cup externally.

These aromatic signals are then interpreted by the brain in relation to past experiences. For example, a light-roasted Ethiopian coffee may evoke associations with citrus or floral teas, while a darker-roasted Brazilian coffee may be perceived as chocolatey or nutty.

In this sense, tasting notes are not describing literal flavours present in the coffee, but rather the closest familiar references that the brain can use to interpret complex aromatic information.

Why coffee can remind us of other foods

Coffee is an unusually complex beverage from a chemical perspective, containing hundreds of volatile compounds that contribute to its aroma and overall flavour profile.

Many of these compounds are also present in other foods, particularly those that have undergone processes such as fermentation, roasting, or caramelisation. As a result, there is a significant overlap between the aromatic compounds found in coffee and those found in fruits, sugars, and cooked foods.

When these compounds are detected, the brain draws comparisons to known experiences. This is why one person might describe a coffee as tasting like raspberry, while another might perceive it as more akin to red apple. Both interpretations are valid, as they are based on individual sensory memory rather than objective truth.

Understanding acidity in coffee

Acidity is one of the most important and, at times, misunderstood attributes in coffee.

In everyday language, acidity can carry negative connotations, but within specialty coffee it is generally considered a positive quality, contributing brightness, clarity, and structure to the cup.

Acidity in coffee is influenced by a range of factors, including the coffee variety, the growing environment, the processing method, the roast profile, and the brewing technique. Different acids can produce different sensory impressions, ranging from sharp and citrus-like to softer, more rounded characteristics reminiscent of apple or stone fruit.

As coffee is roasted more deeply, many of these acids are reduced or transformed, which is why darker roasts tend to exhibit lower perceived acidity and a heavier, more muted profile.

What about sweetness?

Sweetness in coffee is often misunderstood, particularly because brewed coffee contains very little actual sugar.

Instead, perceived sweetness is largely the result of cross-modal perception, where aromatic cues influence how we interpret taste. When a coffee presents aromas associated with caramel, chocolate, or ripe fruit, the brain interprets these signals as sweetness, even in the absence of measurable sugar.

This also explains why sweetness can appear to diminish in stronger or more highly extracted brews, where increased bitterness and acidity can begin to dominate the overall perception.

Bitterness and balance

Bitterness plays an essential role in coffee, contributing depth and balance when present at appropriate levels.

Although it is sometimes viewed negatively, bitterness is a natural and necessary component of coffee’s flavour profile. Without it, the cup would lack structure and feel incomplete.

Bitterness primarily arises from compounds formed during roasting, including the breakdown of chlorogenic acids, and becomes more pronounced in darker roasts or when coffee is over-extracted. As mentioned earlier, caffeine itself accounts for only a small portion of this bitterness.

Why tasting notes can feel confusing

Tasting notes occupy a space between science and language, which is why they can sometimes feel difficult to interpret.

On one hand, they are grounded in real chemical compounds and sensory processes. On the other, they rely on human perception and descriptive language, both of which are inherently subjective.

Individual experiences of flavour can vary widely depending on personal taste sensitivity, cultural background, and prior exposure to different foods and drinks. What one person identifies as a clear berry note may be perceived quite differently by someone else.

For this reason, tasting notes should be seen as guidance rather than definitive statements.

A more structured approach to flavour

To improve consistency and clarity in coffee evaluation, the Specialty Coffee Association has developed updated frameworks such as the Coffee Value Assessment (CVA).

Rather than encouraging increasingly specific or obscure descriptors, the CVA places greater emphasis on broader, more recognisable categories such as floral, fruity, sweet, cocoa, and nutty.

These categories provide a useful foundation, allowing tasters to anchor their observations before moving into more detailed descriptors if appropriate. This approach helps make coffee more accessible without sacrificing nuance.

How we approach tasting notes at Calm Coffee Roastery

We have taken inspiration from this structured approach in order to make our tasting notes clearer and more approachable.

We begin with one of the broad, recognisable categories of:

-        Floral

-        Fruity

-        Sweet

-        Nutty

-        Cocoa

Following this we add one or two more specific descriptors that help to refine the profile without becoming overly niche or abstract.

For example, a coffee might be described as

fruity + citrus + brown sugar, or

floral + grape + caramel.

By leading with familiar categories, we aim to make it easier to understand what a coffee might taste like at a glance, while still offering some additional detail for those who want it.

In Summary

The experience of drinking coffee can evoke flavours such as chocolate, fruit or even sweet potato because of the way our senses interpret aroma and taste together.

Tasting notes are ultimately a way of translating a complex sensory experience into something that feels familiar and communicable. They are not exact, and they are not universal, but they are useful.

Rather than focusing on whether you can identify each individual note precisely, it is often more helpful to consider whether the overall profile sounds appealing to you.

Coffee is a nuanced and complex beverage, but understanding the basics of how flavour works can make it far more approachable.

By recognising the roles of taste, aroma, and perception, tasting notes begin to feel less abstract and more intuitive. Over time, as you taste more coffees, your own ability to interpret these notes will develop naturally.