Adding a pinch of salt to your coffee while it brews can significantly reduce bitterness and enhance sweetness, according to coffee experts. This simple trick, which uses an ingredient likely already in your kitchen cupboard, has been endorsed by America's Test Kitchen and Perfect Daily Grind.
How Salt Improves Your Coffee
Specialists at America's Test Kitchen suggest that adding salt to your morning brew helps diminish bitterness, providing a more balanced cup. Perfect Daily Grind states that salt helps "balance the flavour profile of bitter robusta coffees and coffees with very dark roast profiles."
Sara Marquart, former head of flavour at The Coffee Excellence Center, explained: "The addition of salt in coffee dampens bitterness without using other additives. Salt naturally brings out the sweetness of coffee and maintains pleasant aromas. If people are sensitive to bitterness, even in specialty coffee, adding salt is a good alternative to using milk and sugar."
The Alton Brown Method
The technique gained widespread attention in 2009 when food science authority Alton Brown featured it on an episode of Good Eats. He advised adding half a teaspoon of salt for every cup of water and two teaspoons of ground coffee, maintaining it helps neutralise bitterness and enhance the drink's overall taste.
Brown said: "Not only does salt cut the bitterness, it also smooths out the stale taste of tank-stored water. Research has proven that salt is actually better at neutralising bitterness than sugar."
Online Reactions and Variations
The quirky tip has sparked debate online, with one TikTok user commenting: "Interesting." Another added: "Works in beer too." A third offered their own twist: "I add a sprinkle of cardamom to my morning coffee. It takes away any bitterness."
While Brown wasn't the first to suggest adding salt to coffee, he played a significant role in bringing the technique into the mainstream. Even now, countless coffee enthusiasts still refer to it as "the Alton Brown trick."
