How to Avoid Poor Acidity in Coffee? Does Specialty Coffee Have Sour Notes?

For coffee lovers, drinking coffee is certainly about enjoying the flavor of the coffee itself, not just its functional effects.

Tasting a cup of coffee involves two parts: first, the nasal experience, sensing the rich aroma of the coffee; second, the oral experience, savoring the various flavors of the coffee. The flavor of coffee, when it comes down to it, is actually an art on the tip of your tongue.

A good cup of coffee, especially black coffee without sugar and milk, can reveal different tastes of fragrance, bitterness, acidity, richness, and sweetness, lingering on the palate with an endless aftertaste.

Today, FrontStreet Coffee will discuss the acidity of coffee. In many people's impression, coffee tends to taste bitter. When occasionally tasting an acidic coffee, the first reaction might be to wonder if the coffee has spoiled. In fact, not all coffee has a bitter taste; some coffee with a bit of acidity has even better flavor.

Why Does Coffee Have Acidity?

The acidity in coffee beans comes from the beans themselves and the roasting process.

The acidity in coffee primarily originates from the inherent taste of the coffee beans. Coffee beans are part of plant berries and naturally contain fruit acids. During the coffee growing process, environmental factors such as climate and altitude affect the coffee's acidity. For example, coffee grown at high altitudes typically has higher acidity than coffee grown at lower altitudes.

Good acidity brings richer meaning to the sour taste, with distinctly fresh and pleasant aromas, similar to fruity flavors or a soft, rounded acidity, indicating that this is a coffee with "quality acidity." For example, the citrus acidity in Gesha or the lemon fragrance in washed Yirgacheffe. Poor coffee acidity, on the other hand, is caused by improper cultivation, processing, roasting, or brewing, bringing unpleasant sour sensations that usually produce a "sharp" feeling, which we generally call harsh acidity.

Whether coffee is acidic, and whether it's "good" acidity or "bad" acidity, depends on the coffee bean variety, roast level, and brewing parameters.

Roasting

The roasting method is another important factor affecting coffee acidity.

Coffee beans contain acidic organic compounds that can be synthesized by plants themselves and contain weak acid aromatic substances with carbon molecules. Organic acids include chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, acetic acid, citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, etc., and these organic acids increase or decrease before and after roasting.

If the roast is underdeveloped or the dehydration is incomplete, harsh acidity will appear.

Of course, it's also related to the roast degree. The lighter the coffee roast, the lower the degree of caramelization, and the more organic acids remain in the bean, making it easy to produce acidity. The less damage to acidic substances in the coffee bean, the more clearly the acidity can be experienced. Conversely, the darker the roast, the less likely there is to be acidity, because extended roasting time easily eliminates the floral and fruity aromas in coffee beans. Acidity and other flavors disappear, leaving only bitterness. This is why light to medium roasts are more popular in specialty coffee, while commercial beans are often heavily roasted.

Brewing

The water temperature used to brew coffee also affects the coffee's acidity. For the same coffee, brewing with lower water temperature results in more pronounced acidity compared to brewing with higher water temperature. In brewed coffee, as it sits, the acidity will also become more apparent as the temperature decreases.

Every step of the coffee production process causes subtle changes in the coffee's taste. Besides differences in bean variety, roast degree, and brewing method, different harvest times, processing methods, and storage methods all have different effects on acidity.

If the brewing water temperature is too low or the grind is too coarse, leading to under-extraction, harsh acidity will also appear. Therefore, to avoid this situation, FrontStreet Coffee needs to repeatedly test brewing parameters to find the appropriate brewing settings.

Quality Acidity vs. Poor Acidity

The acidity in coffee actually comes in two types: uncomfortable sourness (Sour) and pleasant acidity (Acidity). It's not difficult to distinguish between good acidity and bad acidity, just as you can distinguish between fruit acid and hydrochloric acid.

The former is caused by improper cultivation, processing, roasting, or brewing, bringing unpleasant sour sensations that usually accompany a pungent aroma, creating a "sharp" feeling that we generally call harsh acidity.

The latter, however, brings richer meaning to acidity. Distinctly fresh and pleasant aromas, similar to fruity flavors, or a soft, rounded acidity all indicate that this is a coffee with "quality acidity." For coffee lovers, everyone has their own preferred acidity and intensity. Quality coffee acidity can make the entire cup of coffee stand out with rich layers, which is also the direction pursued by current specialty coffee production.

How to Avoid Poor Coffee Acidity?

Defective beans include what are called full sour beans/partial sour beans. Beans that appear yellowish-brown or reddish-brown are identified as sour beans, which occurs when the beans ferment during harvesting and processing and are contaminated by bacteria. Therefore, specialty coffee typically selects the highest grade coffee beans, which have fewer defects. Of course, FrontStreet Coffee conducts two manual selections before and after roasting to remove defective beans and ensure coffee quality.

Moreover, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas also carefully remove defective beans that might affect the coffee's flavor during brewing. Through layer upon layer of quality control, the coffee is expressed in its optimal state.

The world of coffee flavors is rich and diverse. The joy lies in tasting various different flavors from a single cup of coffee, and fruit acidity is an essential part of this experience. It is precisely these acidic flavors that make the coffee's flavor layers full and create the unique personality of each bean.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473