My biggest problem with cold brew is that it homogenizes the flavor of coffee so damn much. Yeah you can still get the hints of different flavor notes, but it’s so much more muted. I have done French press for about 15 years as my go-to, but now I’ve been going with vacuum brew and love it. It’s such a clean brew.
I roast my own coffee too so I have a lot of control over freshness as well as the specific roast level of the bean, and it is just disappointing to lose the uniqueness in cold brew. I still can enjoy it, and will occasionally make it when it’s hot, but I don’t do large batches of it anymore.
100% agree with the salt though. There’s a VERY fine line on it being nutty flavored and just salty coffee though. I’ve certainly screwed that up a few times by testing that boundary lol.
Another option that sounds even weirder though: egg shells. Does all the same things that salt does to neutralize the acidity, but without modifying flavor whatsoever. What I would do is rinse the shells out and refrigerate them until I have a full dozen, and then toast them in a toaster oven. Works really well if acidity bothers you.
I never thought about it much, but you’re right. For me, the benefits of cold brew outweigh the downsides, but I roast too - only I reserved my self-roasted for espresso or aero-press and just bought roasted beans from the store for the cold brew; I always thought of it like cold brew hiding a lot of sins in the beans, but now I think about it, your explanation is the real reason.
Mainly I prefer the product of cold brew, and that’s what I drink 5/7 days - it’s easy and convenient, and better than most hot-brew, including French press. My BIL has a nice Moccomaster, and while it’s good I still prefer my cold brew. The other two days I make milk drinks (cappuccinos) from my Microcasa Lever, but it’s all in the service of reducing the bitterness.
I tend to roast light, as well, for more acidity and brightness; that improves espresso. I suspect my bitter receptors are just over-sensitive, and no matter how fresh the beans, if it’s not a light roast or cold brew, it all starts tasting like burnt crappy Starbucks beans since all I get is the bitter.
Report back! I don’t really do that much anymore, but I did it for a long time. The acidity hasn’t really bothered me though, and I like the slight saltiness myself, so I go that route instead.
I don’t think salt modified the acidity, though. What they do is activate the salty receptors which share nerve pathways with bitter receptors, so you detect less of the bitterness in the coffee.
Edit: I can’t find any reputable sources for the sharing nerve pathways part, but a couple of paper abstracts I found do show that saltiness suppresses our ability to detect bitterness.
In the same paper abstracts, they also mention how bitterness itself suppresses sweetness, so by suppressing bitterness with salt, you also make any sweet notes in the coffee stand out better. This might be another reason why salt makes it more palatable.
My biggest problem with cold brew is that it homogenizes the flavor of coffee so damn much. Yeah you can still get the hints of different flavor notes, but it’s so much more muted. I have done French press for about 15 years as my go-to, but now I’ve been going with vacuum brew and love it. It’s such a clean brew.
I roast my own coffee too so I have a lot of control over freshness as well as the specific roast level of the bean, and it is just disappointing to lose the uniqueness in cold brew. I still can enjoy it, and will occasionally make it when it’s hot, but I don’t do large batches of it anymore.
100% agree with the salt though. There’s a VERY fine line on it being nutty flavored and just salty coffee though. I’ve certainly screwed that up a few times by testing that boundary lol.
Another option that sounds even weirder though: egg shells. Does all the same things that salt does to neutralize the acidity, but without modifying flavor whatsoever. What I would do is rinse the shells out and refrigerate them until I have a full dozen, and then toast them in a toaster oven. Works really well if acidity bothers you.
I never thought about it much, but you’re right. For me, the benefits of cold brew outweigh the downsides, but I roast too - only I reserved my self-roasted for espresso or aero-press and just bought roasted beans from the store for the cold brew; I always thought of it like cold brew hiding a lot of sins in the beans, but now I think about it, your explanation is the real reason.
Mainly I prefer the product of cold brew, and that’s what I drink 5/7 days - it’s easy and convenient, and better than most hot-brew, including French press. My BIL has a nice Moccomaster, and while it’s good I still prefer my cold brew. The other two days I make milk drinks (cappuccinos) from my Microcasa Lever, but it’s all in the service of reducing the bitterness.
I tend to roast light, as well, for more acidity and brightness; that improves espresso. I suspect my bitter receptors are just over-sensitive, and no matter how fresh the beans, if it’s not a light roast or cold brew, it all starts tasting like burnt crappy Starbucks beans since all I get is the bitter.
Okay, well if eggshells are calcium carbonate, I wonder if getting that would do the same thing – I’ve got some experimenting to do! :D
Report back! I don’t really do that much anymore, but I did it for a long time. The acidity hasn’t really bothered me though, and I like the slight saltiness myself, so I go that route instead.
I don’t think salt modified the acidity, though. What they do is activate the salty receptors which share nerve pathways with bitter receptors, so you detect less of the bitterness in the coffee.
Edit: I can’t find any reputable sources for the sharing nerve pathways part, but a couple of paper abstracts I found do show that saltiness suppresses our ability to detect bitterness.
Yeah I think you’re probably right. Still can make things more palatable for some, but not because of changing acidity.
In the same paper abstracts, they also mention how bitterness itself suppresses sweetness, so by suppressing bitterness with salt, you also make any sweet notes in the coffee stand out better. This might be another reason why salt makes it more palatable.