Espresso and Pour-Over Coffee Too Bitter: Can Sugar or Ice Reduce the Bitterness?

Sometimes, we can taste distinct bitterness in our coffee. This bitterness generally comes from two directions: one is the over-extraction bitterness caused by too long extraction time or too strong extraction intensity; the other is the scorched bitter taste produced by overly dark roasting!

These two different types of bitterness offer completely different experiences, but for those who can't handle bitterness, both are quite unfriendly (whispering: for example, FrontStreet Coffee)! So, without wasting coffee, we need to make changes to its bitterness! Let's turn it into a more acceptable cup of coffee. The traditional approach is inevitably to add a large amount of sugar, while a more unique method is to add salt! Both are good ways to improve bitterness. Therefore, the theme of our article today is: sugar and salt, which can better improve coffee's bitterness! But before that, let's review the sources of bitterness!

Sources of Bitterness

When extraction intensity is too strong, it creates an over-extracted bitter taste! Excessively high water temperature, too fine grinding, and overly long extraction times are all "suspects" in over-extraction incidents! They all cause us to extract large amounts of caffeine and chlorogenic acid lactones from the coffee, both of which are major sources of bitterness.

In addition to over-extraction, there's also bitterness created by overly dark roasting! During the roasting process, substances in coffee beans undergo countless decomposition and polymerization reactions. The darker the roast, the more prominent the scorched bitter taste becomes.

How Sugar and Salt Improve Bitterness

When we eat/drink something bitter, we don't directly perceive the bitterness! Instead, our taste buds first release calcium ions, which transmit the "bitter" signal to the brain, activating the bitterness receptors, and only then do we perceive bitterness. Therefore, in many cases, bitterness is the last taste perceived during eating and drinking.

The addition of salt blocks the transmission of bitterness signals, reducing our perception of bitterness. Sugar, on the other hand, relies on quantity to reduce the proportion of bitterness. Both can create the illusion of disappearing bitterness, but in reality, they only increase the perception of other tastes. We perceive more other flavors, so the bitterness is naturally "ignored"! After understanding the principle, let's begin our comparison to see whether sugar or salt better improves coffee's bitterness!

Experimental Comparison

As mentioned above, there are two ways to get bitter coffee: over-extraction or dark roasting. So... FrontStreet Coffee wants both! Wouldn't brewing over-extracted coffee with dark roasted beans be even more bitter? Let's get the parameters!

• Beans used: FrontStreet Coffee Sumatra · Golden Mandheling
• Weight: 15g
• Grind setting: Ek43 setting 10 (normally 11)
• Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
• Brewing temperature: 92°C (normally 88°C)
• Brewing method: Three-stage pour
• Filter used: Kono

Although we've listed the parameters, please do not imitate them, as these parameters will cause over-extraction and are not suitable for daily brewing! Now, let's begin brewing. Since this is a negative example, we won't elaborate on the process!

The brewing time was 2 minutes and 30 seconds, yielding a total of 200ml of coffee liquid. We divided it equally into four portions, each 50ml. One portion received an appropriate amount of salt water, another received an appropriate amount of sugar, and we'll compare the tastes of these two portions. The remaining over-extracted coffee without any additions will be randomly given to friends to drink later~

In the experimental article "How much salt is needed to improve coffee's bitterness," because table salt is both fine and salty, making it difficult to measure, FrontStreet Coffee mixed salt and water at a 20% ratio to create a fixed-concentration salt solution, allowing for better measurement of salt data. Finally, we concluded that 2ml of salt water could perfectly improve this 50ml of bitter coffee. So, for the first cup, we'll add 2ml of salt water!

Since sugar granules are distinct, we can easily control their weight, so we can add sugar directly! After measurement, without disrupting the flavor balance, FrontStreet Coffee found that 1g of white sugar could reduce the bitterness of over-extracted coffee. Both cups are ready, now let's taste them separately!

The cup with added salt showed a significant decrease in perceived bitterness, with balanced flavors and enhanced body. Overall, it's a coffee with mainly salty-sweet notes and weak bitterness. It's easier to drink than before adding salt. The cup with added sugar didn't reduce the perception of bitterness but suppressed it through quantity, reducing the proportion of bitterness in the entire cup of coffee. Therefore, it tastes both sweet and bitter, somewhat conflicting. If more sugar were added, the sweetness would dominate, and the entire cup would lose the characteristic flavor of coffee, becoming something similar to Banlangen (isatis root) sweet water.

Therefore, we can conclude that if you want to experience a unique sensation, salt might be more suitable for you than sugar. If you just want to finish this cup of coffee and get some caffeine, then adding more sugar would be better~

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FrontStreet Coffee
No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473