Method for reducing coffee acidity | Hacker News Reader

Method for reducing coffee acidity

patents.google.com

58 points1970-01-0174 comments

Putting basic chemicals into an acidic solution to make it less acidic is trivially obvious. The interesting question here is what this does to the taste of coffee, which can be heavily influenced by the water. I would have suspected that this would affect taste significantly, and probably not in a good way.

They have a taste test in the end and claim that some of the versions taste better than their plain water. Not sure how much I'd believe this, especially as they don't specify their "plain coffee" and what the properties of the water were. In general softer water tends to be better for coffee taste than hard water.

There can be a substantial difference in the flavor of coffee based on the composition of the water used to brew it.

Softer water doesn't necessarily mean better or worse tasting coffee. Just different tasting coffee. Hardness of the water impacts extraction yield from the coffee. Alkalinity will have a huge impact on the acidity, or "sour" notes in the coffee and you can adjust this to taste.

That basically has already been well researched:

https://awasteof.coffee/how-to/mixing-water/

https://coffeeadastra.com/category/water-for-coffee/

https://www.scottrao.com/blog/lotus-water-drops

And is a functional requirement of a bunch Specialty Coffee Association stuff.

I've experimented a bit with adding some bicarbonate to very acidic espressos. It mutes the flavor a little bit but completely kills the harshness that made it unpleasant. It is not a fix for under-extraction though, it fixes beans that are just not good for espresso.

A tiny bit of salt works wonders for very bitter espressos from overly roasted beans.

But on the end buying beans I like is easier and makes even better coffee than those hacks.

Or cold brew it. Reduces acidity by 70%. Brewing takes longer, but IMO it's worth it.

Careful, this will increase the power of your coffee by ~2.5x. So you will either need to water it down or drink less of it.

Cold brew is surprisingly easy to make. All you need is a French press. I think you are technically supposed to do it with a coarser bean grind, but it’s possible to just leave ground coffee with a certain ratio to water on the counter in the French press overnight and you are done. Press the coffee and the morning and it’s ready. Afterwards you probably want to decant it if you don’t drink it all though

I use Grady's pitcher packs, and I use half the recommended number of packs per pitcher, so it's less concentrated than normal. I also found they do decaf pitcher packs, so that I can avoid all that caffeine.

I also mix this about 50/50 with milk alternative, currently that would be Ripple brand.

Personally, I would never do cold brew in a French press. Any container will do, so long as you use the appropriate amount of coffee, and it is appropriately filtered (they make special filters for this). But I don't like using glass containers for this stuff -- to easy to drop and make a right royal mess of broken glass and coffee grounds and such splattered all over the place. So, I use non-breakable containers instead.

I hadn’t heard of Grady’s. Good rec. I also like that they do decaf as I’ve also been cutting out caffeine.

Who would have guessed that adding Tums to coffee neutralizes it's acidity? It should not be possible to get this patent. We really need a science "expert" advisory committee to the patent office.

Having a patent doesn’t mean it’s enforceable though. If it’s ever challenged it can just be nullified without wasting the resources to scrutinise every single parent.

Try making your own brew water. https://espressoaf.com/guides/water.html

Best answer. Adding bicarb solves this.

and here I'd been making espresso with Burton on Trent! Thanks for sharing

For bitterness, add a pinch of salt

https://www.thoughtco.com/does-salt-in-coffee-reduce-bittern...

"The reason given is that adding the salt improves the flavor of the coffee. As it turns out, there is a chemical basis for this practice. The Na + ion diminishes bitterness by interfering with the transduction mechanism of that taste. The effect occurs below the level at which the salty taste would be registered."

I often put a pinch of salt in the brewing basket atop the grounds. Not a lot. It’s noticeably less bitter.

People would give me strange looks upon mentioning salt to lower bitterness of coffee, a chip would do the trick. " Rim a Cocktail Glass with Salt—It's an Easy Way to Elevate Your Drink. This classic technique adds flavor and finesse to your favorite cocktails, especially a margarita"

My grandma taught me this ages ago. I still use this technique when I'm forced to drink bad coffee.

That's really more of a hack, there are better ways to avoid bitter coffee. If you use a light or medium roast and can adjust grind size and temperature, the coffee doesn't have to be bitter.

It probably isn't a better way if it is a lot more complicated. A pinch of salt is easy.

The effect of salt is quite limited, changing the other parameters is much more powerful. But yes, it requires different equipment that not everyone has or requires more manual effort than a simple coffee machine.

Coffee's normally bitter. If it isn't, it ain't coffee.

I tried the salt trick once; it works, and makes coffee disgustingly not bitter.

Milk makes coffee less acidic plus you get an extra [1] anti-inflammatory boost with this combo.

[1]: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/01/230130090347.h...

unfortunately you also have to drink milk

unfortunately you still need to drink coffee

milk is to be added to bad coffee only to insult it's poor body

Using an AeroPress is an easy way to create low acidity coffee at home. I used to drink drip and french press and had to stop due to stomach discomfort from the acidity, but thus far have not experienced those effects with the AeroPress. Compared to the other methods, the grounds are exposed to hot water for less time, resulting in an overall less acidic brew.

Is it really stomach discomfort though? At a pH above 5 you’re still way above what a healthy stomach should be. Perhaps it was your esophagus that hurt?

For sure, I was using stomach discomfort as a broad euphemism to mean the overall unpleasantness I experienced from drinking coffee compared to days when I abstained. Anecdotally, I have a friend who quit coffee for similar reasons who also took up drinking AeroPress brew successfully.

How long do you typically leave between adding the hot water and plunging the aeropress?

Around 15 seconds. This is on the low end of extraction time, official instructions say between 10-30 seconds, although it's really to your preference, and some people prefer a minute or longer.

With drip coffee or french press, you're looking at steeping times around 3 to 5 minutes.

The paper filter helps a lot too.

It's the paper filter. French press is much more acidic in part because it lacks one.

Additionally, in comparison to drip with a filter, the reduced extraction time makes a difference as well.

That's really interesting because I have been putting milk in my coffee only recently, realizing I'm only doing this because it feels easier on my guts and thinking what could be done with stuff that isn't milk.

Then I'm looking at these ingredients and they actually look what they fortify milk with... Calcium carbonate, check, KOH, check [2] - Magnesium Hydroxide, I don't think they add that. I think Potassium Chloride might be an additive in feed for dairy cows but it's not an additive.

[2] https://www.vynova-group.com/blog/potassium-derivatives-dair...

Can anybody explain why I feel like crap after drinking about 5 cups of decaffeinated coffee (black, without milk/sugar) during a workday?

(Brand doesn't seem to matter, I tried many, and I have no problems drinking just water, or tea)

Coffee (even decaf) on an empty stomach can cause irritation for some people. It does for me.

You may also have a mild food sensitivity/allergy to coffee specifically. (Yes, testing for food sensitivity is somewhat problematic, and often indicates the presence of intestinal permeability.)

How do you feel? Decaf still has some caffeine it's possible you are slowly getting dehydrated. Water and electrolytes might help

It's acidic. So hard on the stomach, especially if you're not consuming anything else. Try an antacid with it and see if that helps make you feel not as bad. If so, then discontinue coffee.

Why is weak acid like that so hard on the stomach? Stomach/gastric acid is way lower pH and is a strong acid.

Orange juice is more acidic and less associated with stomach problems (but not unassociated).

Assuming a 16oz cup of coffee, most people are not drinking ~2.5 liters (5 cups) of orange juice daily for extended periods.

Five cups equals 2.5 liter? Then I assume you are American, where these huge quantities are more normal. And usually not that strong coffee either (on the contrary). The Spanish sometimes use 'CAFE' as an acronym: Caliente (hot), Amargo (bitter), Fuerte (strong) and Escaso (small amount).

For reference, a Starbucks "grande" is 16oz. Starbucks has 6 sizes and the grande is the larger of the two middle sizes. A quick search of the first page of results on Amazon for "coffee mug" shows most of them are 16-20oz.

Five, 16oz cups is 80oz, and there's 33oz in a liter.

I'm not trying to disagree with you, just describing how I got my number, which is different than your reasonable implication.

It seems to be less about the pH, per se, but about the effect that those particular chemicals have on the stomach. Some of them cause the stomach to produce more acidity. It may not even be the acidic chemicals themselves, but other coffee molecules that are extracted in roughly the same temperature/pressure regime.

The mechanisms are hard to trace, since there are so many chemicals involved and the actual production of stomach acid so complicated. But you know what the doctor will say when you tell them that it hurts when you go like that.

why are you drinking 5 cups of decaffeinated coffee a day

I drunk 7 on average. With milk. They are tasty. I basically drunk them instead of tea which has too much caffeine for me and causes me too loose sleep, get anxious, and get facial muscles twitches and feel like something very wrong is happening. No ill effects from decaf in my case.

I would recommend you research how decaf is made. There are multiple methods, and some are really nasty sounding.

The argument I got from a chemist once was something like "Yes, but they take all the toxic chemicals out of the beans after processing". Yikes.

Lavazza Decaffeinato removes caffeine with the use of just carbon dioxide. Supposedly.

If its your throat it could be GERD. I went from 3-4 cups a day to green tea...

Can you please describe what you mean by “feeling like crap”? Trying to understand if I have the same issue.

Basically very agitated, anxious. It's the same as with regular coffee, though perhaps slightly less.

It sounds like you are reacting to the caffeine. Decaf still has somewhere between 5 and 20% the amount of caffeine as regular coffee

Yeah, this is what I thought at first. However, I can drink 2L of cola and still have no problems whatsoever.

Now that I think of it, I do feel bad one or two days after I stop drinking cola.

Perhaps it is the caffeine but it's acting in a different way, more like an addiction.

Do you drink tea as well? Tea contains a lot of caffeine when compared to decaf. You might also try another decaf. The amount of caffeine in different brands may vary. I could drink 7 cups of decaf Lavazza without feeling any caffeine at all and I'm very susceptible to it. I can't suffer even a single cup of normal coffee per day or few teas without getting anxious and twitchy fairly quickly.

5 cups of _decaf_ coffee? People who drink lots of coffee are nearly always after the caffeine; you must really love the taste, huh.

or the ritual and experience. not the OP but I drink one cup of regular + decaf after and enjoy both the process and taste.

There is a small amount of caffeine in decaf.

https://www.ncausa.org/Decaffeinated-Coffee

About 1/20. I could drink 7 cups of decaf per day on average for weeks without feeling any caffeine while a single cup of normal coffee consumed at any point in a day can pretty much ensure sleepless night in my case.

There are other alkaloids in coffee that may be affecting you.

Cold brew. Sometimes I think it’s too bitterless!

Yeah, I thought this was just going to be an article about cold brewing lol.

Sometimes, I take my cold brew and heat it up in the microwave. Hot Cold Brew is great

Only to let it cool down again ...

I've brewed coffee with alkaline water, which in my very unscientific observations made it significantly less acidic.

The alkaline water that I find is that fancy water. I'll stick to tap water + Brita filter and some salt.

You can add e.g. natron / baking soda / sodium bicarbonate to tap water and you have DIY alkaline water.

Also helps to soften hard water, as calcium carbonate falls out of solution - which is then filtered in the coffee filter when brewing with a pour-over. No tinkering with the Britta filter required! :D

Let me add some backing soda to the next mixture to try it out!

Should this have a (1995) appended to it?

I thought of that, but it means it expires in 2025. I think. There's a website that give you the expiration date of a patent.

It's actually on the page (far right middle) and it expired in 2015, which is 20 years after filing (plus any extensions due to delays).

Actually, applications before 1996 can be a bit trickier since they (and their children) can be extended for quite a while (that's what some IP firms did in the early 2000s) by delaying their issuance. Patents were originally good for 17 years after issuance (or 20 years from filing if that was longer), whereas now it is only 20 years from filing.

Bad mental arithmetic on me!

I knew it changed right around 1995 or 96, though.

isn't this the same as the Scandinavian method of mixing grounds with egg shell and whole egg...into a slurry, boiling, settling than pouring?

I'm not brave enough to try it - my light roast pour overs are delectable without going this route, but apparently one of the best ways to reduce acidity.

It's called a cortado OP

Add sugar...

If you're in an insulin resistance any% speedrun?

Followed by diabetes, and death.

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