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

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

The saltiness in coffee is different, however, and is caused by extraction. Can the following aspects also produce a salty taste?

1. Origin

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

2. Green Beans

When coffee beans are stored improperly, moisture, mold, or aging will cause the loss of organic substances in the green beans - an acquired deficiency.

3. Roasting

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

4. Extraction

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If saltiness keeps showing up in your espresso, start with a purpose-built espresso bean. For a traditional Americano and latte, FrontStreet Coffee suggests the Classic Blend or Commercial Blend, both built on a classic Italian formula with a small share of Robusta added, giving buttery, nutty, spicy, dark chocolate, and toast aromas, a bold and thick body, and a rich golden crema that makes latte art easy.

Those who prefer nutty aromatics should try the FrontStreet Signature Blend and FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend, both built on a large proportion of Brazilian beans that provide a comfortable sweetness-bitterness balance and a creamy peanut note, exceptionally smooth on the palate. The Signature Blend brings the nut, chocolate, and caramel aromas of Colombian coffee with a pleasant acidity, while FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend adds the mature plum acidity of Yunnan small-bean coffee and a cream chocolate fragrance - well balanced, highly versatile, and a great partner for specialty espresso drinks as well as lattes and Americanos.