Salt in Your Coffee?

The hippie coffee roasters at Stumptown still come up with surprises on a regular basis, despite being taken over by coffee giant Pete’s. Or perhaps because of it. This time, they’ve created a specialty salt with their Portland neighbors, salt merchants Jacobsen. With coffee, of course.

The combination of salt and coffee isn’t that strange. In the past—we’re talking about the last century—our grandmothers used to sprinkle some salt on top of the ground coffee in the filter before pouring in the water. Back then, there was only one type of roast for coffee beans: deep dark brown, resulting in an intensely bitter flavor. The salt softened those bitter notes somewhat.

Buisman

Buisman was also often sprinkled over the ground coffee: roasted sugar that added just a little more depth of flavor. These days, with all the different roasting styles available, from light to dark, we no longer need salt or roasted sugar in the same way.

Although various websites tell us that adding salt to filter coffee is trendy again, and that according to those same sites, scientific researchers would even recommend salt as a sugar substitute. Indeed, to tone down that bitter taste.

Stumptown’s coffee salt: Delicious on steak.

That salt and coffee are a great combination in general is proven by the one-time collaboration salt from Stumptown and its neighbors Jacobsen & co..

Affogato

The mix of local sea salt, Stumptown’s Hair Bender—the very first coffee that head hippie Duane Sorenson ever released under the Stumptown brand—plus a little cold brew coffee delivers a balanced flavor that works well with many different dishes and drinks. From an affogato or a cocktail to cookies and even steak.

As the recipe proves—you can find it here on Stumptown’s website—where you can also order the salt.