Factors That Influence the Acidity of Coffee

The idea of “low-acid coffee” has buzzed around the coffee industry for the last decade or so, and its promotion is unfortunately rife with misinformation and pseudo-science. Many coffee drinkers initially expressed interest in coffees with lower levels of acidity due to health conditions like GERD and IBS, or just generally sensitive stomachs. Others prefer coffees with less acidity for their taste, finding brighter coffees to be unpleasantly sour. As a result of the demand for coffees with lower levels of acidity, new brands inevitably began to pop up, touting themselves as “low-acid coffee companies” and claiming to have “engineered” coffees with less acidity. Acidity in coffee is more complex than marketing jargon proclaims it to be, and you can find coffees with lower levels of acidity from almost any roasting company.

 

When referring to a coffee’s acidity, you could be speaking of either perception or chemistry. Perceived acidity is what we taste and sense when we drink coffee. We commonly think of perceived acidity as the sharp, tingly sensations we taste in coffee - think of the bright and vibrant feeling on your tongue when you bite into citrus fruit. On a more technical level, unroasted coffee contains many different types of acid, which you can quantify using the pH scale.

 
Generally speaking, there are several factors that can alter both the perceived and the chemical acidity in a coffee: how it’s roasted, its growing conditions, and how it’s brewed. Darker roasted coffees often have lower levels of perceived and chemical acidity. Coffee grown at higher altitudes typically have higher levels of acid in the coffee cherry, and coffees grown at lower altitudes tend to have less so. Finally, if too few coffee particles are “extracted” during the brewing process (a topic for a later blog), the brewed coffee will usually have a higher level of perceived acidity, considered by many as sour.

 
You can find a variety of coffees with lower levels of acidity in both senses from Schuil’s offerings. If you prefer more lightly roasted coffee without prominent acidity, we suggest trying our Brazil Bourbon Santos; our flavored coffees will also contain lower levels of acidity as we use the Brazil Bourbon Santos as the base for our flavored beans. As previously mentioned, coffees roasted darker generally have lower levels of acidity, and any of our dark roast options from Fogchaser to Espresso “Italian Roast” would be great places to start.

 
Stay tuned for part two!

 
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