Talk about Coffee?

In a way you are correct. Most wines, aside from abominations like Boone's farm and the like, do not have any fruit (besides grapes, obviously) or chocolate or flowers in them. Where you are wrong, however, is that the flavors and scents present in wines are not just there through free association. There are dozens of different kinds of grapes and they all have distinctive characteristics which can taste similar to other things such as fruits, grass, clover, etc. The taste of the grapes also depends on when it is harvested - early harvested grapes usually have a more tart, citrusy flavor and later harvested grapes are usually much sweeter and give off a honey flavor, with varyiances in between (some wines even have the associative terms on the bottles. For example, Trockenberenauslese would be on bottles of German/Austrian dessert wines that are picked at the very last minute possible). Exposure to the sun also plays a part in this and one learns to get a sense of whether the grapes come from a hotter or colder climate ("hot" wines generally have more alcohol since there are more sugars to convert due to extra ripening in the sun and when you smell a "hot" wine it actually "smells hot.") (another cool way to determine the alcohol content is to tip the glass and look at how big the meniscus is - the bigger the rim, the more alcohol it has).Also very important in the flavor profile of wine is the type of soil the grapes are planted in. You can actually taste, smell or feel (as in the case of minerality, especially iron) the limestone, chalk, iron, etc. The grapes also sometimes soak up elements in the soil from previously grown crops and natural fertilizers, such as manure (which is described as "barnyard"). Not every wine is crafted well enough to bring out these characteristics. I especially love wines cultivatd in iron-rich soil because of the mouth feel...raw, almost (and here is where free assocation comes in) like the feeling you got after you stuck a 9-volt battery on your tongue as a child.Finally, the fermentation process adds its own characteristics, like the oak you mentioned. The types of barrels used to ferment the wine are usually oak or stainless steel. Some winemakers use new wood, some use charred wood, and even the country of origin is important. For instance, French wood is associated with vanilla and American wood is associated with dill. Stainless steel doesn't necessarily impart a metallic characteristic, but it makes the wine seem crisper or cleaner. How long a wine has aged (either in the barrels or in the bottles) also has alot to do with taste and color (older reds usually fade into a more orange color and whites get more gold).This isn't it, either. So many things affects how wine tastes, smells and feels.To get back on topic, I would assume that the soil and climate that the beans are grown in also have alot to do with how the coffee tastes, but since coffee has such a strong flavor of its own it is probably less detectable except in the case of bitterness. Preparation of the beans should also play a part, especially how they are rosated and in what(?). I'd have to look into it more.Carry on

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London"Hazards exist that are not marked" - some bar in Chelsea

Is that through adulteration or are the flavors naturally present (ABE: or genetically manipulated) in various beans? I always assumed that flavored coffees have other ingredients added to the beans. Edited by Jaderis, : No reason given.

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London"Hazards exist that are not marked" - some bar in Chelsea

Interesting, jar, thanks I am not much of a coffee drinker (except for the occasional shot of espresso poured over milk chocolates to melt and shoot. Mmmmmm...I think it stems from my dislike of milk/cream and I could never really get into black coffee no matter how much sugar I put in it (altho I have been known to force it down in late-night diners).I prefer tea.

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London"Hazards exist that are not marked" - some bar in Chelsea