Can we talk about that filthy sour-coffee hype
As befits a true freelancing millennial, I drink coffee regularly. At home, in the newsroom and, of course, in coffee shops. The latter is increasingly starting to annoy me, though. There’s a trend going on that I simply can’t understand: sour coffee.
Coffee so sour that your face spontaneously puckers. What’s enjoyable about that? Maybe still bearable as a cappuccino or a coffee with milk, but black? No way.
Sour crap. Why?!
Still, it seems I’m in the minority, because one coffee shop after another is serving that sour crap. And you’re not safe in restaurants either. Why?!
Acidic
Colleague Delilah has the liberating answer: “I worked at Bocca for a year—not as a barista—and there I learned that it’s called ‘acidic’, and that you ‘can only appreciate it once your palate is better trained.’ It’s often Ethiopian coffees, high-end and, well, the kind of thing that sets the connoisseur apart… a bit like how we no longer drink sweet white wine.”
In other words: I’m a coffee barbarian.
Sour-Coffee-Survival-Guide
Do you fall into that category too? Here’s a Sour-Coffee-Survival-Guide in 4 steps.
Step 1: avoid coffee from Africa and Central America
‘Coffee from Africa is generally more acidic than coffee from other countries. The beans aren’t just fresher; they’re also fermented for longer, sometimes as long as 36 hours. By comparison, Colombian coffee is fermented for 15 hours,’ says Giancarlo Matarazzi.
But it’s not just Africa: in many Central American countries such as Panama, El Salvador and Costa Rica, coffee is also ‘high in acidity’, aka sour, says coffee expert Joost Leopold.
‘If you like sweet coffee, choose Colombian or Brazilian coffee instead,’ he writes. ‘Or choose Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and India if you like spicy and bitter coffee.’
Step 2: make sour less sour
If you happen to end up in a café that only sells acidic coffee, or you accidentally bought a bag of sour beans yourself: tough luck. Paddoem Tsssj. No, there’s still hope:
– ‘It’s sacrilege, but according to Matarazzi, you can brew the coffee a little hotter. ‘That burns off the acids’.
– You can also choose an espresso; because water runs through it for less time, you get less acidity and more bitterness, he says.
– Or grind it finer, which makes the ‘extraction time’ (the time the coffee and water are in contact with each other) a little longer and makes it somewhat more bitter.
Step 3: milk
I said it earlier: choose a coffee with milk, such as a cappuccino, latte or latte macchiato. The sweetness of the milk means you no longer taste the coffee’s acidity.
Step 4: Coffee barbarians unite!
If we all start asking for non-acidic coffee, hopefully we can turn the tide.
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