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Why Does Coffee Taste Salty? Where Does the Saltiness in Coffee Come From? Saltiness in Coffee is a Defect

Published: 2026-01-28 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/28, Professional coffee knowledge exchange For more coffee bean information Please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style ) FrontStreet Coffee Brief Introduction【Saltiness in Coffee】In fact, saltiness can be divided into many types. The aroma can make people think of heavily salted foods, such as the smell of stir-fried dishes with too much salt, as well as the smell from the bottom of the cup after drinking coffee, which smells salty and reminds people of shrimp crackers and Wang Wang

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

FrontStreet Coffee's Brief Introduction to [Saltiness in Coffee]

Actually, saltiness comes in many varieties. The aroma might remind you of heavily salted foods, such as the smell when too much salt is added during cooking, as well as the smell from the bottom of the cup after drinking coffee, which smells salty and brings to mind salty snacks like shrimp crackers and Want Want Senbei, among others. In terms of taste, it's generally the flavor of salt.

The saltiness in coffee mainly comes from minerals, and these minerals don't decrease during roasting. In contrast, the sucrose content in fresh coffee beans accounts for approximately 6% to 9% (varying with altitude), which is also the biggest source of coffee's sweetness. Poor storage methods for raw beans and improper roasting not only cause coffee to lose its sweetness but also make the acidity become sharp and unpleasant. After losing the balance of sweetness, saltiness and acidity become more prominent. If roasters don't notice this and deliberately try to reduce the sharp, unpleasant acidity, they will only make the coffee lean more toward saltiness and bitterness.

During regular pour-over and espresso preparations, I occasionally taste and "smell" saltiness (the smell refers to the odor after grinding), but most of the time, saltiness appears more distinctly in Espresso.

Due to the distribution of taste, acidity and saltiness are easily confused, making it difficult to distinguish between poor acidity and saltiness. However, it's still different from the saltiness of actual salt.

Of course, some beans have exceptionally obvious saltiness, very close to the taste of sea salt. Although some say it's influenced by sea breeze, this lacks confirmation and can only be taken as hearsay.

Interestingly, in most regions of the United States, people like to enhance the saltiness in coffee. Simply put, this is because SCAA identifies it as a basic taste, so they bring out the saltiness. It seems that Americans treat SCAA standards in the coffee industry as sacred scripture.