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How to Drink Black Coffee Without Bitterness? Three Key Factors That Determine Whether Your Coffee Is Sour or Bitter!

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). Everyone has different preferences for coffee flavors, but by paying attention to these key factors, you can easily adjust to your favorite taste! Want it more sour or more bitter? The choice is yours when brewing! ●1. Coffee Bean Grind Size Want to brew delicious coffee? One of the secrets is the grind size of your coffee powder.

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

How to Adjust Coffee Flavor to Your Personal Preference

Everyone has different preferences when it comes to coffee flavor. In fact, as long as you pay attention to these key points, you can easily adjust the flavor to your liking! Whether you prefer it more acidic or more bitter, the choice is yours!

1. Coffee Bean Grind Size

One of the secrets to brewing delicious coffee is the grind size of the coffee powder. If the grind size is incorrect, not only will you not get a delicious cup of coffee, but extraction might not even occur properly. For example, if you use a grind size suitable for a moka pot in a pour-over dripper, the coffee will be too bitter to drink, and the fine powder might clog the filter, causing excessive extraction time or water to overflow from the filter cup. Conversely, if you use a grind size suitable for pour-over in a moka pot, you won't be able to extract rich espresso, resulting in a liquid with little coffee aroma. Additionally, because the coffee particles are too coarse, the coffee liquid might not extract from the bottom chamber to the top chamber and instead leak from the side of the pot. This shows that each coffee brewing device has its own appropriate grind size. Most coffee bean shops will inform you about the suitable grind size for your brewing method or grind the beans according to your needs. However, for optimal coffee freshness, we recommend buying a home grinder and grinding the beans just before brewing.

Espresso brewing devices like moka pots or ROK have relatively fixed grind sizes with limited adjustable options. However, if you adjust the grind size within the permissible range, the extracted coffee flavor will vary. Pour-over drippers or French press offer a wider range of grind size options, allowing you to adjust coffee flavor according to different grind sizes. For example, when using a French press to extract coffee, if the coffee beans are ground coarser than usual, the flavor profile will lean towards acidity; if ground finer than usual, it will lean towards bitterness.

Even when using the same coffee beans, the same brewing device, and the same extraction method, different grind sizes will result in significantly different coffee flavors. If you want to vary the coffee taste, try adjusting the grind size.

Different grind sizes affect coffee flavor.

2. Adjust Water Temperature to Control Mouthfeel

Different water temperatures extract coffee with different characteristics and flavors. Generally, water temperatures for coffee extraction fall into three categories: 1. Using water below room temperature, 2. Using hot water, 3. Boiling coffee and water together.

Coffee extracted with water below room temperature typically requires anywhere from 2 hours to over 24 hours to fully extract the coffee components. The resulting coffee resembles wine and can be stored for relatively longer periods. The longer it sits, the smoother the taste, but it will eventually spoil if left too long. The "Cold Brew" method, famous for ice-drip coffee, belongs to this category.

Coffee extracted with hot water is the most common method, with water temperatures generally between 80-95°C. The lower the temperature, the stronger the acidity, and bitterness also appears. Coffee extracted at different temperatures has significantly different mouthfeel characteristics. Therefore, even when using the same coffee beans and the same grind size, different water temperatures will still produce different experiences. This is why long-time users of pour-over drippers or French press have their preferred water temperatures.

The method of boiling coffee and water together involves extracting coffee at temperatures close to 100°C. Turkish coffee pots or siphon brewers belong to this category. This method allows you to drink relatively strong coffee, and since the water temperature is consistently maintained at 100°C, it's easier to maintain the coffee's consistent flavor.

Adjusting water temperature allows you to control coffee mouthfeel. If it's too bitter, lower the water temperature; if it's too acidic, increase the water temperature. Remember, understanding how to adjust water temperature can create countless different coffee flavors.

3. Filter Material - Paper vs. Fiber (Cloth) vs. Solid (Stainless Steel Series)

A cup of coffee contains coffee liquid, coffee oils, and coffee grounds. Depending on the material and type of filter used during extraction, different components are filtered out. Therefore, using different filters results in significantly different coffee flavors and mouthfeel.

Typically, paper filters tend to remove more coffee grounds and oils, producing coffee with a cleaner taste. Fiber material filter cloths were commonly used before paper filters became widespread. They can filter out coffee grounds but do not remove coffee oils, resulting in coffee with a smoother mouthfeel. This is why many coffee enthusiasts consider cloth-filtered coffee to have the best mouthfeel. However, after coffee extraction, the cloth needs to be washed, dried, and stored in clean water, making it too cumbersome for widespread popular use. Stainless steel filters extract both coffee grounds and oils, preserving the coffee's original flavor. Additionally, the filters are convenient to store and can be used permanently.

Most coffee brewing devices have their own dedicated filters, but for equipment like pour-over coffee, AeroPress, or ice-drip coffee, the extractor can decide which filter to use. Setting aside convenience considerations, if you want coffee with a cleaner taste, use paper filters; for a smoother mouthfeel, use cloth filters; to experience the coffee's original flavor, choose stainless steel filters.

Recommended Bitter-Free Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's bitter-free coffee beans: Washed Yirgacheffe coffee, Kenya AA coffee, Panama Geisha coffee, and others, all have excellent guarantees in terms of brand and quality. More importantly, they offer extremely high value for money. A half-pound (227g) package costs only about 80-90 yuan. Calculating at 15g per cup of pour-over coffee, one package can make 15 cups, with each single-origin coffee costing only about 6 yuan. Compared to coffee shops that often sell cups for dozens of yuan, this represents excellent value for money.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans. They also provide online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com