An Expert Explains Why You Should Never Sweeten Your Coffee and Drink It Bitter
Good Coffee Isn’t Supposed to Be Aggressive
Contrary to popular belief, drinking coffee without sugar doesn’t mean grimacing. A quality coffee should offer a balanced range of sensations: a pleasant light acidity, fruity or chocolatey notes, a subtle bitterness, and a lingering finish. If all you perceive is a burnt taste, it’s not your palate that’s at fault.
A successful coffee relies on balance. And this balance disappears as soon as sugar is added, because it homogenizes the flavors. The result: you perceive only one dominant taste, at the expense of all the aromatic complexity.
Why Not All Cafés Are the Same
The taste of coffee begins long before it reaches your cup. The altitude at which the beans grow, their geographical origin, and the quality of the harvest—every detail counts. The higher the altitude at which coffee is grown, the more subtle its aromas tend to be. Conversely, lower-quality beans produce harsher coffee, which is sometimes “corrected” by a darker roast—and therefore a more bitter one.
This is how the vicious cycle begins: over-roasted coffee, excessive bitterness, added sugar. Whereas a well-selected and carefully processed bean has nothing to hide.
Extraction Changes Absolutely Everything
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