Acidity vs Sweetness: Find Your Coffee DNA

In this episode, I dive deep into the fundamental question that shapes every coffee drinker's journey: do you prefer acidity or sweetness in your cup? I share my personal evolution from someone who started drinking coffee just for the caffeine hit to developing a sophisticated palate that craves balance. I discuss how I initially gravitated toward acidic light roasts, similar to my tea-drinking background, and eventually discovered the magic of balanced coffees that showcase both bright acidity and natural sweetness.

I explore how understanding your preferences isn't about changing what you like, but about knowing exactly why you like it. I share insights from my recent light roast series release and experiences tasting Cup of Excellence reject coffees that were more developed and balanced than typical specialty coffee offerings. Through personal anecdotes and practical advice, I help listeners identify their own coffee compass and explain how this self-awareness can transform your coffee selection process and enhance conversations with fellow coffee enthusiasts.

What You'll Learn: By listening to this episode, you'll discover how to identify your own coffee preferences between acidity and sweetness, understand the reasoning behind your taste choices, and learn how this knowledge can guide you in selecting coffees that truly satisfy your palate every time.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:30 Understanding Coffee Preferences: The Big Question
• 3:00 Why Knowing Your Preferences Matters
• 5:00 My Coffee Journey: From Caffeine Hit to Sophistication
• 7:30 The Quest for Balance: Acidity Meets Sweetness
• 9:30 Cup of Excellence Experience & Development Levels

Transcript

[00:00:00] We're live right now. Today is August 4th, 2025. I'm doing pretty good today. I hope you're doing pretty good today.

[00:00:15] I actually just released my whole light roast series right now, and it's going fine. But the biggest thing that I am learning and understanding is that everybody has their preferences, their own purposes in coffee, which we all know you do, I do, everybody does.

[00:01:08] And purposes can mean different things to people. For me, I want more balance. I like acidity a little bit more than sweetness, but I need sweetness in my cup of coffee. I'm more of a 60-40 kind of split person. Sometimes too much sweetness can be overwhelming, boring. Too much acidity for me can be too much in my mouth. It coats in a way that's very unpleasant. It's something that I cannot have every single day.

[00:01:40] But that's what we're really talking about today. We're talking about the thing called preference. And in this case, what do you care about most? Do you care about acidity or do you care about sweetness? That's pretty much it. Which one do you care about? Because you determine what you care about in that aspect, then it'll be a lot easier for me or for anybody or, more importantly, you to determine coffees that you gravitate to majority of the time.

[00:02:16] This is not so much about changing your perspective. Yes, I believe everybody should at times try different things, right? See what's out there. Go beyond your comfort zone when it comes to drinking coffee. But if you know exactly what you like and the reasons why, then when you go and pick up a bag of coffee, you can quickly decipher what you want, what you're going to be experiencing in that cup of coffee.

[00:02:56] Why do you like what you like? Or why do you gravitate to what you like? And you're the only one who can answer that question. Truly, you're the only one who can really answer that question, which is perfectly fine. It's been interesting, I wouldn't say alarming, but a lot of things that people have come to me and expressed to me of why they like a certain coffee over another.

[00:03:21] And the thing about it is that we like what we like, and a lot of times we will not venture out to places where we could discover new preferences. And I think sometimes, as much as I like to change things up, to try different coffees, to try different brewing methods, to try different temperatures to bring different things out of coffee...

[00:04:23] We're going to be able to express ourselves with coffee and move on with our day. Like for me, I want to say I'm a little bit more complicated, but I do have a decent amount of spectrum for me and the reasons why I like what I like. Again, I'll use myself as an example to better help you determine who you are. Our preferences shape who we are, but also give other people the reasons why they like what they like.

[00:05:06] When I started my journey in coffee, it was all about just getting that caffeine hit. A lot of times I would mix it with creamer and milk. And then eventually I started to drink it black. We go through this progression of enjoying coffee the way that we want to. And then it got to the point where I started going to cafes. And when I did that, I was shocked how weak the coffees were. So I went down that avenue of going medium and darker.

[00:05:43] And then eventually once I got to Italian roast, I stopped from there. I auto-corrected and went back to where I was drinking a lot of light roast, and light roast was my jam. I noticed that certain coffees were underdeveloped, tasted like tomatoes and grass. To an extent they still do.

[00:06:08] But that's what I was enjoying at the time. It could have been the reason why I was enjoying it was because I was an avid tea drinker before I really started to go into this coffee thing. I didn't only drink tea when I was sick as I do now. But I realized that for me, I truly gravitated to those acidic type of profiles.

[00:06:35] And I didn't really know or care for sweetness or what that really was. I think that's why now that I taste sweetness, I'm really shocked that coffee can be truly sweet.

[00:06:49] And as I've gone through this whole rabbit hole of figuring out my own palate, I come to realize that I like that balance. I know a lot of times when people say balance, that can be confusing. But in my case, I like balance. I like a coffee that's acidic, a coffee that's sweet. It can swing a little bit one way or the other. But whenever I brew it and taste it, to me, it's very magical because I'm tasting everything together. I'm tasting what a true real ripeness of a fruit really is.

[00:07:29] And a lot of times when I drink coffee for me, I think of fruit. I think about the things that I can see if I can mimic as much as I can. Fruit that I'm eating, for instance, could be oranges, it can be apples. And a lot of times whenever I'm eating those types of things, I tend to gravitate to ripe fruit. If it's extremely balanced, I can taste the different elements, I can taste the complexity. And as it cools, it gets even more intense.

[00:08:05] And I can still get that to an extent with a darker roast, especially if the dark roast has some type of fruitiness and acidity in it. A lot of times whenever I have dark roast, it tends to be more chocolatey, more sweet. And again, after time, that gets boring.

[00:08:25] You'll get that from a lot of Central and South American coffees, especially Brazilian coffees. So I think that's why some people don't gravitate to those particular coffees because even in a lighter roast, they tend to be softer, more muted. It's a little bit boring, I would have to admit, as I've done my experiments and tested the coffees.

[00:08:48] But then this comes back to the other spectrum where I've gone back to see what I hate about or dislike about light roasting and the reasons why. And I come to realize it's too acidic. There's no sweetness. There's no balance for me. If you roast or you get a coffee that's slightly more developed compared to traditional light roast, you may be able to coax a little bit of the sweetness out of it.

[00:09:38] I know what I like in coffee. And I think when I went to the Specialty Coffee Association event, it was a lot of lightly roasted coffees. Most of them tasted like acidic bombs. Some of them were more interesting than others. And ironically speaking, the Cup of Excellence rejects that I tasted were a little bit more developed, more balanced. I could drink those forever.

[00:10:07] And I think the experience that I had with those coffees was truly magical. And again, these are the rejects. And I don't know if it's just their philosophy when the Cup of Excellence people look at coffees and the way they analyze them, they'll actually roast them a little bit more developed, more medium, than a lightly roasted specialty coffee spectrum. That could be a story for another day.

[00:10:36] But it's interesting where you can get that balance and get that sweetness and get that acidity too.

[00:10:44] But I guess the biggest thing that I'm coming away with this, and hopefully that you're getting this too, is that you got to know what you like. You got to know why you like it. And you have to also know why you don't like or have a dislike of the other side of the spectrum.

[00:11:06] Because again, that is what helps you along your journey. That is what helps you figure out the things that you like to do within coffee. And then what that does is it allows you to, if you have a friend, you can talk them through what they like, you can talk to them through what you like. And then you can figure out a little bit more of what you can enjoy together or even separately.

[00:11:33] As much as we think we're alike, even me being a medium and dark roast person, even if somebody is a light roast type of person, they may like it for different reasons. And that's perfectly fine. But as we talk about it more, and I think as long as we keep talking about it more, I think we'll be able to appreciate each other's take, each other's palate, each other's fascination with coffee.

[00:12:08] And then it is what it is. So that's what I got for you. Those are some of the things I'm thinking about right now, and I do hope that this helps you as well. And I think that's what I'm thinking about a little bit more as you think about one of many purposes that you do have within your coffee journey and the reasons why you like what you like. This is Everyday Beans signing out. I'll talk to you later. Bye.