People Are Adding Salt to Their Morning Coffee For a Rather Bizarre Reason

[Warpy]

Most people, if they're going to add anything to their coffee, choose the side of sweetness and cream. A touch of sugar or hazelnut syrup, perhaps a dash of cow's milk, all to help smooth out the rough, bitter edges of coffee.

But it might be worth your while to reach for something savory instead. A "hack" circulating on social media suggests adding a small pinch of salt, rather than a spoonful of sugar, to your morning (or afternoon or night, no judgment) cup of brew. This trick seems to remove some of the bitterness and brings out the other flavors that might otherwise be lost.

If the idea sounds odd to you, rest assured that it's not as strange as you might think. There is even a scientific basis for this quirk of coffee, well known for decades: Sodium chloride is extremely effective at suppressing bitterness in coffee and all kinds of food.

https://www.sciencealert.com/people-are-adding-salt-to-their-morning-coffee-for-a-rather-bizarre-reason

Makes sense, especially if you've ever left the salt out of a batch of fudge or other chocolate dessert. Maybe Starbuck's needs to put salt shakers on their counters, I understand their brew is burnt and bitter.

[underpants]

1. My wife told me about that years ago for bitter coffee

Especially at restaurants

[Warpy]

3. I imagine it was common years ago

when coffee was made in percolators and tended to be really bitter. Moving to drip systems like Melitta or Mr. Coffee improved it a lot since the brewed coffee wasn't exposed to direct heat.

I vaguely remember my mother salting her coffee when we were on the road and eating in greasy spoon diners.

[ggma]

5. My grandmother taught me that. I was about ten.

I always have made coffee wherever I worked (so it tasted like I wanted) and everyone always said that my brew was smooth; a very small pinch was all it took.

gg

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Salt is good in damn near everything

If you look up a Coffee Ice Cream recipe, you'll almost surely find salt as one of the ingredients.

[yellowdogintexas]

14. salt will over ride the bitter in grapefruit, lemons and limes

also sour oranges, and granny smith apples.

[mucifer]

4. cinnamon is a better choice iMO

[Saviolo]

13. My hubby adds a bit of both!

A little sprinkle of cinnamon and a tiny pinch of salt. Just brings all the flavours alive.

[littlewolf]

6. in the navy we always added salt

cuz the coffee was bitter ...
funny in Spain and Norway
the coffee was very good and never
needed salt.

[yellowdogintexas]

15. Loved the coffee in Spain. They drink it round the clock too

I read somewhere that the folks in the Scandinavian countries drink huge volumes of coffee.

[alittlelark]

7. Been doing that for 8 or so years.

[Maraya1969]

8. I started putting about a teaspoon of salted butter. It really tastes delicious.

[TygrBright]

9. Starbucks over-roasts their beans. Maybe salt would help...? n/t

[Warpy]

10. Their blend uses a lot of French roast, which is the darkest roast

Supposedly the longer roasting time brings out the sweetness in the beans, but most Americans think it just tastes burnt. They still buy and guzzle the stuff. Salt might help a little, but what really helps is turning into candy with all the crap they put into the fancy ones.

[TygrBright]

11. ugh... not a fan of hot coffee milkshake variations. n/t

[Warpy]

12. I don't like any of it

I remember like it OK when I was three or so but by the time I started school, I hated the stuff. I was severely lactose intolerant and my 50s mother thought I'd die without milk, so she tried everything. I guess coffee flavored milk worked for a little while but it didn't fool my digestive system a bit and I grew to hate coffee as much as milk.

It's just amusing to me to see people gulping down some concoction that's as rich as 4 candy bars, all because the coffee's lousy.