Adding the taste of vanilla to coffee is an ancient practice. It started by adding the flavor to already brewed coffee, but soon people began putting french vanilla in the coffee bean roasting process. Today almost every coffee company offers this type of coffee, but which roast is the best french vanilla flavored coffee?
Quick Summary: Best French Vanilla Coffee
 | Our Top Pick LIFEBOOST COFFEE FRENCH VANILLA |
| Check On Lifeboost→ |
 | DUNKIN FRENCH VANILLA |
| Check on Amazon → |
 | CAMERON FRENCH VANILLA |
| Check On Amazon → |
 | EIGHT O’CLOCK COFFEE FRENCH VANILLA |
| Check on Amazon → |
 | MCCAFE FRENCH VANILLA LIGHT ROAST |
| Check on Amazon → |
Top 5 French Vanilla Coffees
Coffee reviews are tough! Everyday coffee drinkers have so many individual preferences. And with so many delicious vanilla-flavored coffees, it took a while to whittle down the roast list. The best french vanilla coffee has to be an excellent and flavorful brew on its own, with the added flavor from french vanilla. So here are the five best french vanilla coffee brands for all you premium coffee lovers.
Lifeboost Coffee French Vanilla
Lifeboost Coffee French Vanilla
This French Vanilla Single Origin Coffee captures the essence of a secluded French café with its tantalizing notes of vanilla and satisfying flavor of fresh cream.
Lifeboost Coffee French Vanilla uses the best beans from coffee-producing small farms in the mountains of Nicaragua. The coffee develops in the shade to lower the acid content so that the medium roast process can bring out the bean’s flavor and increase caffeine without the high acid content.
Lifeboost Coffee is mixed with high-quality French vanilla oil to give the beans a robust and natural taste. You can pull out the creamy vanilla coffee flavor, but it doesn’t overpower the beans. It’s a great whole bean option for many of your coffee drink recipes.
Things We Like About Lifeboost French Vanilla
- Robust Aroma
- Fair Trade Practices Support the Farmers
- A Portion of Each Purchase Goes to the Rainforest
- Organic Beans with No Artificial Flavor
- High-Quality Vanilla Oil to Give Incredible Taste Without Artificial Aftertaste
Things We Don’t Like About Lifeboost French Vanilla
- Limited Choices of Where the Beans Are Sourced Leads to Fewer Flavor Profiles
- Minimalist Packing Doesn’t Look Fun or Exciting
- High Price
Dunkin French Vanilla
Dunkin made its name with its donut shop coffee, and their French vanilla roast lets you make that iconic drink at home. The French vanilla imparts a sweet and creamy taste to the roast without overpowering the coffee. You’ll love this coffee on ice.
With this all-Arabica coffee, you get to enjoy the exotic taste of the medium roast Arabica beans sourced from South America that keeps up the caffeine content and adds a nice classic coffee flavor boost. The medium roast also does well with a cold brew coffee. In addition, these great beans come at an affordable price, and budget buyers can enjoy this rich and sweet French vanilla-flavored roasted coffee all day long.
Things We Like About Dunkin French Vanilla
- Less Bitter Coffee With Low Acidity is Easy to Drink
- Medium Roast Keeps the Flavor of the Beans and Caffeine
- 100% Arabica Beans from South America Give Each Cup Bold Coffee Flavor
- Very Low Price
- Wonderful French Vanilla Smell Makes It Fun to Brew in the Morning
Things We Don’t Like About Dunkin French Vanilla
- Weaker Coffee When Brewed
- Not the Strongest French Vanilla Taste
- Different Roast Than Used in the Donut Shops to Make it Easier to Brew at Home Changes the Taste
Cameron French Vanilla
Cameron French Vanilla uses small-batch roasting to ensure that you get the maximum amount of flavor with every sip. Not over-packing the beans allow the company to guarantee that the whole bean gets roasted and coated in flavor.
The company uses the top 10% of Arabica beans to help make sure your brew won’t be too bitter to enjoy. As a result, you get a quality cup of coffee with every batch. Real lovers of coffee will appreciate this roast.
Things We Like About Cameron French Vanilla
- Uses Top Notch Arabica Beans to Produce a Powerful Flavor
- Roasted In Small Batches to Take Out the Bitterness
- Sustainable Sourcing and Processing Make it Environmentally Friendly
- Mixes Contain Beans From Many Farms to Maximize Flavors
- Great Price
Things We Don’t Like About Cameron French Vanilla
- Sometimes It Can Taste Over-Roasted
- Weaker Vanilla Flavor in Some Cups of Coffee
- Small Batch Roasting Process Can Lead to a Wide Range of Quality
Eight O’Clock Coffee French Vanilla
Eight O’Clock has been delivering the best-tasting coffee products for over 150 years. They took their favorite classic roast and added French vanilla flavor to it so that you can enjoy a sweeter dimension added to each cup.
The French vanilla coffee adds a bit of caramel flavor. The unique blend pulls out the creaminess of French vanilla flavor for a highly satisfying brew.
Things We Like About Eight O’Clock French Vanilla
- Easy to Drink Coffee That You Can Drink Any Time of the Day
- 100% Arabica Beans Come From Different Parts of South America To Enhance Flavor
- Adds Some Hints of Caramel to Give the Coffee Even Sweeter Tastes
- Medium Roast Helps Bring out the Flavor of the Coffee
- Each Purchase Helps Charities that Support Local Coffee Farmers to Improve the Community
Things We Don’t Like About Eight O’Clock French Vanilla
- Packing Can be Flimsy and Messy to Use Causing the Grounds to Spill
- For a Medium Roast Coffee, It Can Be Bitter
- Coarser Grind Than Some Other Coffees Can Lead to Weaker Brew
McCafe French Vanilla Light Roast
McCafe French Vanilla Light Roast is the highest caffeine coffee on this list. That makes it an excellent way to get a bit of extra energy each morning with flavors that lean heavily on the Arabica beans they use.
If you aren’t a massive fan of the light roast, Mccafe also offers a medium roast French vanilla option that holds up well. However, if you want to enjoy the subtle sweetness of a French vanilla coffee with the higher energy of a light roast, it’s an excellent option.
Things We Like About McCafe French Vanilla Light Roast
- The Light Roast Brings Out the Flavor of the Arabica Beans
- Bring Home the Flavor of One of America’s Favorite Drive Through Coffee Spots
- Strong Caffeine Helps Get You Going in the Morning
- Part of the Proceeds Go to Rainforest Charities
- McCafe Gets Beans From Sustainable Sources
Things We Don’t Like About McCafe French Vanilla Light Roast
- The Light Roast Makes it More Acidic so it Can Be Hard On Your Stomach
- More Bitter than some of the Other French Vanilla Options
- Stronger Caffeine Content Makes It Not a Great Option for an After-Dinner Drink
What to Look for in the Best French Vanilla Coffee
Flavored coffee has become a major segment of the coffee market. Finding the best french vanilla coffee involves a few steps. First, you have to find a good coffee roast. Then you have to find a French vanilla flavor that you enjoy.
You have to figure out a way to pick your favorites to try. It is crucial to discover the type of roast you enjoy the most. Spend the money to try the most and least expensive options. There are great choices at decent prices, so don’t just settle.
You can also find specific flavor notes from particular regions. The beans and how they take in the vanilla flavor can also affect how the coffee tastes. All these features work together to create the best french vanilla coffee.
Understand the Roast
One could argue that the roast process is the most critical part of making coffee. This is because you can impart a lot of flavor into your coffee while you roast it. There are four basic roasts. You can pick from light, medium, medium-dark, and dark.
Light roast leaves coffee beans with the most acid and the most caffeine. When you try these roasts, you taste more of the beans you use. These are also the least oily beans because the company didn’t cook them too long.
Medium roast is one of the most common roasts in America. Big companies like Folgers and Maxwell house made this roast famous. You get more flavor from the process with this roast but still keep a lot of the caffeine. The aroma is also powerful with this roast.
Medium-dark starts to get an oil build-up on the bean. You taste a lot of the roasting process, but there are still undertones of the original bean. Many people pick this roast for the best of both worlds.
Dark roast is the least acidic, least caffeinated, and darkest coffee roast. You also see the most oil in this roast. Dark roast allows the roaster to impart the most sweetness. If you like strong and bold flavors, dark roast may be your thing.
There are different ranges of all these roasts, and some companies pride themselves on making unique roasts that pull out more flavor or more caffeine. Each of these roasts can make an incredible cup of coffee.
Look for the Right Beans
Coffee uses four types of beans; Arabica, Robusta, Liberica, and Excelsa. They are broken into even more categories worldwide.
Arabica beans tend to be the best for flavor and aroma and make the finest coffee. These beans are one of the most popular beans, accounting for almost 70% of the market. With their robust taste, they are also the more expensive coffee beans.
Energy fans prize Robusta beans for their higher caffeine content. It tends to be less flavorful, but it is also a cheaper bean.
Liberica is only used in a few places and is very popular in the Philippines. It is bolder than Robusta, but you can’t find it in many areas. Excelsa is very uncommon and only grows in southeast Asia. It offers unique flavors and aromas, but it is hard to find.
Often companies will create an Arabica and Robusta bean blend for coffee to bring out the best mix of flavor, caffeine content, and price.
Know the Regions
Coffee can come from many different regions around the world. Each location gives the beans unique flavors and taste profiles. This flavor can come from the nutrients in the soil, the types of plants used, and the growing process.
You can find beans from South America, North America, Asia, Africa, and many different islands. You can try coffee from all these countries and taste the difference. Once you find a region that produces beans you like, you can focus on the roast that uses them.
You can find great French vanilla coffee that uses beans from all of these areas. Remember that with dark roast, the region will matter less than the roasting process.
Find A Powerful Flavor
Due to how they make the coffee, you can find many different French vanilla flavors out there. However, just because the coffee style sounds good, you still have to taste the French vanilla flavoring. Some companies use a lot of vanilla, and some put the slightest amount in the mix.
You have to find a coffee that gives you the vanilla flavor you want to try without overpowering the rest of the drink.
FAQ
Here are answers to some commonly asked questions about french vanilla coffee.
What is the Difference Between Vanilla and French Vanilla?
There is no such thing as a French vanilla bean. French vanilla is a flavor that is created by adding extra ingredients to a vanilla recipe. To make vanilla French, you have to add an egg yolk to your recipe.
For coffee, you can’t add egg yolks to the roast. Instead, you try to make the whole flavor more creamy during the process. To achieve this, there are usually sweeter and buttery flavors added to the French vanilla process.
How Do They Flavor French Vanilla Coffee?
To make french vanilla coffee, the beans are first roasted. Then a flavor oil is added to the beans. The coffee makers let the beans sit in the flavor and soak it up. There are tiny holes in the beans that allow them to hold extra oil and flavor.
Does French Vanilla Coffee Have Sugar?
French vanilla is sugar-free if you use french vanilla ground coffee and beans. This is because the process to flavor the beans doesn’t add sugar or carbs to the coffee you make. However, if you are getting a french vanilla prepared coffee drink from a store, it could have a lot of sugar.
Is French Vanilla Coffee Sweet?
Even though the coffee doesn’t have sugar, there is a sweeter taste to French vanilla coffee. The vanilla brings out a sweet flavor like vanilla extract. In addition, the French aspect of the mix gives a creamy, custard-like feel to the taste.
Overall your coffee will give you sweet hints that can take some of the bitterness off of the regular coffee flavor. It is not a dessert, but it provides sweet notes.
Final Thoughts
With all of these great coffee choices, it was tough to pick just one. Lifeboost French Vanilla Coffee offers the coffee consumer a great cup of delicious coffee to enjoy while helping the environment and the coffee community get healthier.
The medium roast keeps the bean’s flavor and a lot of the caffeine in this exquisite gourmet coffee. Additionally, they reign in the acidity by growing the bean in the shade in the mountains of Nicaragua.
Now that you’re ready to try the bold French vanilla and smooth coffee flavor of Lifeboost, buy a bag and help local farmers and the rainforest while enjoying a high-quality coffee.
Happy Caffeinating!
