Why does your coffee taste salty?

I wonder if you have ever experienced this: you actually tasted salty coffee. I have only heard that coffee has three flavors: sour, sweet, and bitter. So where does the salty taste in coffee come from?

In fact, the taste of coffee is composed of sour, sweet, bitter and salty. The four flavors inhibit and balance each other. Sweetness plays an extremely important role. Without sweetness, sourness becomes sharp; without sweetness, bitterness becomes unpalatable; without sweetness, saltiness will emerge. So what are the situations that cause saltiness?

1. Coffee Beans

If coffee beans are mixed with unripe beans, they may taste salty. The organic acids contained in unripe coffee beans have not yet been converted into sugars, so they tend to have a grassy, ​​sharp and astringent taste, but no sweetness. Without sweetness, the saltiness will be enhanced.

Over-fermentation: Over-fermented washed beans have higher acetic acid and lactic acid content. Among acids with the same pH value, acetic acid has the highest sourness intensity. Too much acid suppresses sweetness and promotes saltiness. In addition, sun-dried beans and honey-treated beans have higher salt minerals, which, combined with the dead acid caused by over-fermentation, further highlight the saltiness.

2. Water quality

Eighty percent of a cup of coffee is water, and the pH value, hardness, and total soluble solids in the water will affect the flavor of the coffee. If the water used for brewing is acidic or the calcium and magnesium ion content in the water is too low, the brewed coffee will have a sour taste, and the sour taste is just the enhancer of the salty taste. Water with moderate hardness is the most suitable.

3. Insufficient extraction

If it is a lightly roasted coffee with insufficient extraction, the acidity is very high, the sweetness is not enough, and the saltiness is still there. The acidity, sweetness and bitterness are obviously unbalanced. The high acidity enhances the saltiness, and the sweetness not only cannot suppress the acidity and saltiness, but is suppressed. And it is more likely to taste salty in high-concentration and low-extraction coffee.

Drinking coffee is a very personal thing and should be a pleasure. When you taste different flavors, you can continue to learn and improve your brewing methods to taste a variety of wonderful flavors.

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