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What is the principle of the sweetness of coffee? Where are the taste buds located on the tongue? Why is drinking water sweeter after drinking coffee?

Published: 2026-08-25 Author:

Last Updated: 2026/08/25, "No ~ yes ~ Kua ~ Zhang ~ If you don't believe me, try it. Drink water after drinking coffee. The water will be really sweet! "This is a sentence from a customer friend who visited Qianjie store yesterday. Qianjie found it very interesting, so today we will discuss this issue ~ Sometimes, we are tasting some specific coffees (espresso, single product)

"No, no, no. Drink water after coffee, the water will be really sweet!"

This is a sentence from the guests and friends who visited the Qianjie store yesterday. Qianjie thought it was very interesting, so today let's discuss this problem ~ sometimes, we may drink a sip of ice water before tasting some specific coffee (concentrated, single product). Because you need to wash your mouth with ice water to better perceive the flavor of this high concentration of coffee. From this, it can be seen that this action is to increase the experience of drinking coffee. Drinking water again after drinking coffee can also have the same effect. As the guest friend described at the beginning, the water will have a high "sweetness" under the blessing of coffee.

Even if this glass of water is the one that just gargled, we just think that it will be sweeter after drinking coffee than before! Then why did such a situation happen?

Why is it sweeter to drink water after coffee? This has to mention one of our five senses-taste! Sour, sweet, bitter, salty and fresh are the five flavors that we can feel. The medium for perceiving these tastes is mainly the taste buds on our tongues, which are very tiny sensory organs made up of taste cells, also known as taste receptors. When the taste of the food and drink we eat comes into contact with the taste buds, the taste cells are activated by stimulation, and then the expression of the taste is transmitted to the brain through an electrical signal, so that we can feel the corresponding taste.

There are two reasons why drinking water will be sweeter after drinking coffee. One is because of the "taste contrast effect", and the other is the "oral physiological effect". The "taste contrast effect" refers to the contrast between taste and taste. When we taste one taste and then feel another, the former will have a certain impact on the feeling of the latter. Then this influence can be multiplied, offset, or even changed. For example, first eat a high sweet food and then eat a tasteless food, although the tasteless food does not have any bitter taste, but because sweetness inhibits the activity of the bitter taste buds, the sensitivity is worth reducing, so the tasteless food has a little bitter taste.

"Oral physiology" refers to the acceleration of saliva secretion when the salivary glands in our mouth are stimulated! Saliva contains enzymes such as amylase, which can combine with or decompose certain ingredients in food and drink to produce sweetness. To sum up, we can know that the reason why drinking water will be sweeter after drinking coffee is because of the joint action of the two.

When we drink coffee, coffee stimulates the mouth, causing it to secrete more saliva. On the other hand, the substances in saliva can decompose some ingredients in coffee into sweet substances, which can evolve into sweetness after drinking coffee; it just so happens that the bitter substances of coffee are in sharp contrast to sweetness. therefore, the later sweetness will be more prominent because of the contrast.

Therefore, under the action of these two, the sensitivity of sweetness has been improved after drinking coffee, just as the production of saliva leads to the increase of sweetness, and then drink a sip of water, the water will have a high sense of sweetness.

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FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou China, selling freshly roasted beans from its own farm in Yunnan as well as dozens of carefully selected single-origin beans from around the world for both pour-over and espresso. The products deliver consistently excellent quality and great value, with shipping within 24 hours. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers, and the beans are now available online at the Tmall 。