Is Your Coffee Sour? Here’s What to Know

Wondering Why Coffee May Taste Sour? We're Here to Help!

Coffee can showcase a wide range of complex nuances ranging from floral and aromatic to sultry with undertones of chocolate, fruit, or nuts. However, sometimes coffee can also have unpalatable flavor notes like bitterness or sourness. If your coffee tastes sour, numerous factors could be at play that can influence whether your coffee tastes “sweeter” or more sour. 

How hot the water is, how long coffee beans have been roasted, and how long the grounds are steeped in hot water can have a huge impact on the way a brew will taste in your cup. In addition to this, the roast profile of your coffee beans is huge in terms of flavor differences. 

Here, we will discuss why coffee sometimes tastes sour and what you can do about it! 

Why is My Coffee Sour?

If your coffee has a sour taste to it, it may have to do with how long the extraction process was, which type of coffee beans you are using (Arabica vs Robusta), and whether you are using a light, medium, or dark roast. As a rule of thumb, quickly extracted (hot water, short brew time) lightly roasted Arabica beans will have more acidity and thus, more sour flavor nuances. 

Other Possible Causes of Sour Coffee 

If you are drinking a latte, it could also be that the milk in it has gone bad, so do check for that as well, and if your latte DOES have spoiled milk, don’t drink it, because you could get sick. It's also helpful to know whether you have premium coffee beans like these VS low-quality grounds on your hands. Higher-quality coffee is known for having a better flavor profile, overall. 

What is the Sour Taste in Coffee? 

The “sour” taste in coffee is often associated with a light Arabica roast. You see, light roast coffee is sometimes compared with a ‘citrusy’ profile. Darker roasts will often be on the bitter end of the flavor spectrum, sometimes compared with ‘chocolate’ nuances. Medium roast profiles are typically seen as ‘sweet’, ‘fruity’, and ‘nutty’. 

Sour VS Bitter Flavors in Terms of Light and Dark Roast Profiles

A very dark roasted coffee blend will have minimal sourness and almost no acidity but may also taste very bold and bitter. If you want nice coffee flavors with minimal sourness and bitterness, shoot for medium-roast Arabica beans like these. Then, make sure they are brewed at the proper temperature (pour-over coffee makers are great for this) for the best balance of flavors with minimal acidity, sourness, and bitterness. 

Understanding Coffee: Factors that Impact Subtle Flavor Differences 

Various factors can impact the way your coffee tastes. Its roast profile, preparation method, the age of your coffee beans, the type of coffee beans you are grinding, and how hot your water is, are all factors that come into play when detecting sweet versus sour nuances in a cup of coffee or a shot of espresso. 

• Your Preparation Method Matters, So Try Making Pour-Over Coffee

To taste the different roast profiles or subtle bean differences, a preparation method like pour-over brewing could be a great place to start. After all, it can be hard to detect the subtleties of coffee if you’re making it in an electric drip-grind coffee maker every day. While these kinds of coffee makers are great for the busy everyday coffee drinker, if you really want to get a taste of a specific flavor profile, you may have to try making your coffee differently. 

Pour-over brewing, for instance, can help you more easily taste the nuanced flavor notes in a distinct coffee collection. As discussed in this Reddit post, the way that you make your coffee can dramatically affect its flavor, and with pour-over brewing, you can carefully control more factors as your coffee grounds Bloom and express their oils. 

• Heat is Critical to the Coffee Bloom Process; Be Aware of Your Actual Water Temperature

Water temperature is another important coffee brewing factor that is often taken for granted when developing complex coffee bean flavors. As coffee grounds are exposed to hot water, they will begin to ‘bloom’. In this blooming process, they will release their flavorful oils and other properties into the water to produce the liquid coffee that you drink. Ideally, you should make coffee with water ranging from 185°F to 205°F. 

Additionally, lighter roasts can be brewed at a slightly higher temperature to speed up extraction whereas darker roasts should be brewed with lower water temperatures to help prevent over-extraction. 

• There are Many Stops Between Light and Dark Roast Coffee; Choose the Right Roast Profile for Your Unique Taste Preferences

Coffee generally comes in light roast, medium roast, and dark roast variations. However, there are plenty of stops along the way between a light blonde roast to a rich dark roast. As a rule, the darker the coffee's roast profile is, the fewer subtle nuances will be detectable to the tongue, but the smoother and less acidic the taste will be. 

While dark roasts are known for being smooth, less acidic, and more consistent in terms of flavor, they may lose some of their complexity in the lengthy roasting process. In contrast, lighter roasts often boast more subtleties, floral citrus, or fruity tones, and bright flavor nuances. However, light roasts can also taste sour, acidic, or astringent if prepared inexpertly. 

• The Type of Coffee You Make is A Huge Part of the Flavor Profile

Last but not least is the type of coffee you're making. There are various types of coffee and the kind of coffee beans you have on your hands can be a big part of the overall flavor in your cup. The two most commonly sold kinds of coffee in the United States and Europe are Arabica and Robusta. From there, many subvarieties are available, often varying based on their different growing regions around the world. 

If you like sweeter or more delicate roast profiles, Arabica coffee beans are by far the better option to go with. Robusta coffees are generally more acidic and bitter in flavor and are best when roasted to a very dark roast profile. On the other hand, Arabica coffee varieties can be roasted in many different ways and still display complex flavors and intricate nuances. 

If you have been trying to find great Arabica coffee bean blends sourced from top-rated coffee-growing regions around the world, www.one greatcoffee.com is a fantastic place to start. 

Final Thoughts and Factors to Consider 

So there you have it! Various factors can impact the final flavor of the coffee in your cup whether it is sweet, sour, floral, fruity, citrusy, nutty, and so on. Keep in mind that: 

• The lighter the roast of the coffee roast you are brewing is, the more acidity the beans typically will have. 
• When you are brewing coffee, the shorter the brew time and the hotter the water is, the more acidity will come through. This has to do with how soluble the coffee compounds are. 
• Light roast Arabica beans have more complex flavor profiles with higher acidity while a dark roast Robusta blend will have minimal nuances with more bitter notes. 
• Sour notes tend to be pulled from coffee beans earlier whereas bitter notes tend to show up later. 

Coffee can be complex, beautiful, and intricate in flavor and there are many great ways to enjoy it! If you don't like sour undertones, that's okay. Just keep looking for a sweeter, smoother blend, likely in a darker roast with slower extraction.