Where Coffee Meets Whisky
Get a buzz while getting buzzed.
An informative article over at Whisky Advocate on how to taste the coffee flavors in whisky:
Where do these coffee flavors come from in a whisky? Just as coffee beans are roasted to alter their flavor, coopers char the inner surface of barrel staves to enhance the flavor in whisky. Toasted staves of new oak release furfural, which can lead to the formation of a compound with strong coffee aromas called furfurylthiol.