Salt in coffee tastes better than sugar. Is it science or bullshit?

In the Greek film the Republic of Spice, it was mentioned that salt is the soul of the earth, life and food. Because life needs food, and salt can make it taste better.

Coffee is no exception.

Doesn't it sound strange to put salt in the coffee? Compared with adding milk and sugar to the coffee to adjust the bitterness / change the overall taste of the coffee, the addition of salt can not only reduce the bitter balanced taste of the coffee, but also improve the sweetness and even the flavor of the coffee.

This practice is not dark at all. The practice of adding salt to coffee has been around for a long time. Traditionally, northern Scandinavia, Turkey, Hungary and even Siberia add a small amount of salt to coffee, and this "salty coffee tradition" is thought to have begun in coastal areas of Europe.

In Turkey, before people get married, the groom-to-be will visit the bride-to-be home with his family. According to the local tradition, the bride-to-be will prepare coffee for them and put a pinch of salt in the coffee to ease the bitter taste of the coffee when it is cooked at high temperature.

If the future husband shows a satisfied expression when tasting the coffee, it will prove to be a good relationship; in northern Scandinavia, consumers have been adding salt to the coffee that has been brewed for decades; in the coastal areas of Europe, brackish water with high salt content is often used to make coffee.

Then why is there the practice of adding salt to coffee? Sugar can better cover up the unpleasant taste of coffee. Because before the mid-19th century in Europe, sugar was a luxury, and only aristocrats could afford it, so ordinary people would not think of seasoning the food with sugar, when the food was not tasty. Will imagine seasoning with sea water / salt.

At that time, the coffee beans shipped to Europe were also of poor quality, and the way of brewing coffee was simple and rough. Stir-fried coffee beans until dark and then ground into fine powder, put directly into the pot and then add water to boil and begin to taste, bitter and astringent has also become an indispensable taste of coffee.

But too much bitterness is really hard to swallow, so people begin to try to add various seasonings to adjust the bitter taste of coffee. If they think it tastes good, they will tell the people around them: "Hey!" This tastes good! " So salt has become one of the ways people regulate the taste of coffee. Because salt is the easiest condiment to get, only the practice of adding salt is widely spread.

At that time, people certainly did not study why the addition of salt would make the coffee taste good, and simply spread how it tasted good. Until now, many people still add salt to coffee, first, it is customary and traditional; second, people find that adding salt to coffee can not only reduce the bitter taste of coffee, but also naturally bring out the sweetness of coffee and maintain the pleasant aroma of coffee.

In 2009, food science expert Alton Brown suggested salt in coffee on his cooking show Good Eats. He said that for each cup of water and two teaspoons of coffee powder, half a teaspoon of salt should be added to counteract the bitterness of the coffee. Salt can not only eliminate bitterness, but also relieve the 'stale' taste of stored water. Later, people also made a scientific study of the relationship between salt and the bitterness of coffee, and the study also proved that the addition of the right amount of salt did not make coffee taste salty and was more able to neutralize the bitterness than sugar.

The source of the bitter taste of coffee

Most of the bitterness in coffee is caused by chlorogenic acid lactone and phenyllindane. Both compounds are produced during the baking process with the decomposition of chlorogenic acid. Light roasted to medium roasted coffee is mainly because there are more chlorogenic acid lactone in the coffee beans, so it produces a bitter taste. As the roasting time increases, the deeper the beans are roasted, the more benzene compounds the beans will contain, and the more phenyllindane, the coffee will have a sharper and more long-lasting bitter taste.

At the same time, the extraction of coffee will also affect the performance of bitterness, which will increase the bitterness of coffee if the brewing water temperature is too high, the grinding degree is too fine, the proportion of powder to water is too low, and the brewing time is too long.

Why does adding salt reduce bitterness?

Unlike sweet, sour and salty taste, the perception of bitterness is not a normal reaction on the tongue, but the taste buds release calcium ions, which then transmit "bitter" signals to the brain and activate receptors that perceive bitterness. The addition of salt (sodium ion) will activate the salt receptors in the taste. When sodium ions gather with the salt receptors on the tongue, they inhibit our perception of bitterness.

But the addition of sodium does not "eliminate" calcium, but both occur at the same time, giving us a cross-sensory perception that not only suppresses bitterness, but also increases taste buds' perception of other flavors, such as sweetness. This also means that after adding the right amount of salt to the coffee, not only will it not feel salty and bitter, but the sweetness in the coffee will be more obvious.

Should the salt be extracted with coffee powder, or would you like to add salt after extraction?

There is no exact scientific basis for how to add salt to coffee, just as people added salt at that time, how to like it, because everyone has different sensitivity to bitterness, so it is recommended to add salt to the extracted coffee, because you can determine the bitterness of the coffee, and then add a small amount of it many times until you think it is perfect.

Of course, when it is really difficult to control, you can take a look at the suggestion given by Scott Rao, a leading figure in the coffee industry, that whether it is espresso or dripping coffee, it is best to add 0.15g salt to every 100g of brewed coffee.

Of course, not all coffee is suitable for adding salt. Adding salt can save the coffee that turns over and reduce the unpleasant taste in the coffee. If the coffee itself does not have an unpleasant bitter taste, and when the flavor level is very good, salt is added, then it will really turn over.

When good beans are properly boiled, they will show proper bitterness. When there is a balance between sweet and bitter coffee, the existence of bitterness is very pleasant.

Although it is still strange to put salt in coffee, curiosity can always prompt people to do something "die". I guess you are now ready to run to the kitchen to get the salt, and then intentionally or unintentionally pour the coffee over the car.

Photo Source: Internet

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