Why Can We Taste Saltiness in Espresso Extraction? What Aspects Contribute to Coffee's Salty Flavor?

FrontStreet Coffee Explains Why We Can Taste Saltiness in Espresso Extraction

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Substances that bring salty taste include: sodium chloride, magnesium chloride, ammonium iodide, magnesium sulfate, etc., and these substances are collectively called neutral salts. When cations in neutral salts bind to specific proteins on the membrane of taste receptor cells, a salty taste is produced in our brain.

The saltiness in coffee is different and is caused by extraction reasons. Will the following aspects also produce salty taste?

1. Origin

Coffee beans grown at low altitudes and poor-quality coffee beans do not accumulate enough sweet and sour organic matter components during the growth process, so they are more likely to have a salty taste during preparation.

2. Green Beans

When coffee beans are stored during the preservation process, moisture, mold, or aged beans will cause the loss of organic substances in the green beans, which is an acquired deficiency.

3. Roasting

In deeply roasted coffee beans, salty taste is also more common (which explains why we can often taste salty flavor in espresso). Deep roasting not only causes the loss of origin flavor in coffee but also makes bad flavors more prominent.

4. Extraction

Among coffee extraction methods, espresso is the most likely to produce salty taste for two reasons: one is that deeply roasted beans are more likely to produce saltiness as mentioned earlier; the other is under-extraction, where other substances are not extracted, causing the salty taste to become prominent.

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