Author: MIU DM Team

Introduction

Specialty coffee is prized by coffee drinkers for its superior taste, quality, and dedication to sustainability. It’s often regarded as the finest quality coffee. Arabica beans are the poster child for specialty coffee, with a complex range of tasting notes that include sweet and fruity flavours. 

Specialty coffee differs from run-of-the-mill instant coffee in depth and complexity. Instant coffee is quick and easy to prepare, but it has a uniform and flat taste. Specialty beans offer the purest type of coffee with their natural flavours and nutrients intact.

Specialty coffee gets its fine taste and quality from careful cultivation practices. Farmers nurture the beans with knowledge of growing patterns and seasonal environmental changes. These skills are honed through years of experience growing coffee crops.

The result? Flavourful, nourishing beans that reward you with great coffee – and several health benefits, too.

5 Health Benefits of Specialty Coffee

1. High Levels of Antioxidants

Specialty coffee contains lots of natural antioxidants, like polyphenols and hydroxycinnamic acids. These antioxidants benefit your body by fighting off toxins like free radicals. Free radicals are harmful molecular substances that damage your body’s proteins and DNA.

The roasting process releases these antioxidants. In general, light roasts release more chlorogenic acids, medium roasts have a balance, and darker roasts release more melanoidins.

Antioxidants can reduce your risk of developing illnesses like heart disease and some types of cancers. Some types of antioxidants in specialty coffee are:

• Cafestol

Cafestol moderates and balances out bile acids in your intestine. It’s also anti-inflammatory and prevents swelling and pain.

• Trigonelline

Arabica beans contain significantly higher amounts of Trigonelline than robusta beans. It’s anti-bacterial and partially breaks down to form Vitamin B3 after roasting.

Vitamin B3 is essential for maintaining your metabolism, blood vessel and heart health.

• Chlorogenic Acid

Chlorogenic acid (hyperlink to the previous blog) is present in most types of roasted specialty coffee. It’s anti-inflammatory and known for reducing blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

• Melanoidins

Melanoidins also have anti-inflammatory properties and help combat free radicals. They’re a by-product of the Maillard reaction, which happens during the coffee roasting process. Roasting releases brown pigments and the fragrant coffee taste and aroma you’re familiar with.

• Quinine

In small doses, quinine may help with leg cramps and restless leg syndrome. A fun fact – quinine has been historically used for effective malaria treatment. 

• Caffeine

Arguably the most well-known substance in coffee, caffeine is a kind of antioxidant that has anti-inflammatory properties. It also gives you energy and stimulates neuron activity to improve mood.

2. Improve Mental Alertness

Caffeine enhances mental alertness and is healthy in moderate amounts. Some studies show that moderate caffeine consumption may reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer’s. However, the benefits differ by demographic, underlying health conditions, and methodological differences in the studies.
In a book about the health benefits of coffee – Coffee: Emerging Health Effects and Disease Prevention – a literature review of a wide range of studies showed that coffee may be beneficial for retaining cognitive abilities.

3. Helps With Weight Loss

Coffee could help you lose weight by increasing the rate at which your body produces heat. The more heat you produce, the more calories you burn.

Coffee also increases your resting metabolic rate (RMR), making losing weight easier. Studies have shown that coffee increases your resting metabolic rate by around 3 to 4%.

Another study found that coffee helps burn fat through thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is a process that generates body heat.
Coffee also helps you lose weight in another way. One of iced coffee’s health benefits is appetite suppression, helping with weight control.

4. Better Liver Health

Moderate caffeine consumption could prevent liver inflammation. The ideal amount is 2 to 4 cups of pure, filtered coffee daily, according to a study by the University of Southampton.

This amount is corroborated by another 2024 MDPI study. It found the recommended amount to be about 400mg of caffeine, more than or equal to 2 cups of coffee daily.

5. Reduced Diabetes Risk

Drinking coffee daily could lower your risk of getting type 2 diabetes (4% lower), according to a 2023 study by The UK Biobank in conjunction with The Rotterdam Study.

However, you must take coffee in moderation for this benefit to work. It’s only effective for up to 6 cups, according to a 2021 study by Molecular Diversity Preservation International.

Taking specialty coffee without sugar will help you reduce your sugar intake further.

How do Coffee Roasters Choose the Best Specialty Coffee?

Coffee roasters choose coffee with the highest quality to ensure optimal flavour profiles and overall quality. This quality includes nutritional value. The purest and finest specialty coffee comes from dedicated farmers who have perfected single-origin coffees over decades of trial and error.

Specialty coffee health benefits come from the farming and roasting process. These processes preserve the nutrients in the beans by reducing or eliminating harmful additives during farming and roasting. That’s how specialty coffee producers and roasters ensure you get nutritious coffee beans as nature intended.

Kofrika’s Arabica Beans

Our Ethiopian coffee contains 100% handpicked Arabica coffee beans, known for their fruity flavours and antioxidants. Enjoy the health benefits of specialty coffee today with a cup of Kofrika.

Is coffee acidic or alkaline? Coffee is slightly acidic with an average pH of 5 on the pH scale (the neutral pH is 7).

However, the pH level of coffee is slightly different from its acidity. A coffee’s pH level measures the acid level or how acidic it is. Most coffees don’t deviate too much from the average pH level range. On the other hand, coffee acidity is a term used to describe one aspect of the coffee’s taste. It’s defined as the sharp, pleasant flavour in every sip, which differs among coffee types.

Coffee acidity is essential to the coffee-drinking experience. It adds character and flavour to the drink, without which your coffee would taste flat and dull. 

Your average packet of instant coffee from the supermarket may taste good enough, but it’s not the best way to experience acidity. Specialty coffees provide the best flavour experience, as the beans are washed during processing, which brings out acidity during brewing.

Let’s discover how acidity enhances your favourite morning brew.

Coffee Acidity Taste

Coffee acidity is often compared to the taste of fruits like apples, berries, and citrus fruits. 

Acidity tends to be sweet, refreshing, or slightly sharp. Coffee lovers describe it as the taste of berries, citrus fruits, or dry wine. The reason for all these different flavour descriptions lies in the type of coffee acidity.

1. Malic Acidity

Malic acid makes the coffee taste like green apples or any type of green fruit, such as kiwis, limes, and green grapes. That’s because malic acidity is often associated with the tart, crisp flavour of unripe fruits, which are green in colour.

2. Citric Acidity

Citric acid, as the name suggests, adds the flavour of citrus fruits like lemons, limes, and oranges. Arabica coffee beans grown at high elevations tend to have more citric acid than robusta beans. It adds a burst of bright energy to your cup.

3. Tartaric Acidity

Tartaric acid is associated with grapes and can also add a characteristic wine-like flavour to the coffee. It’s a less common acidity type.

4. Acetic Acidity

Acetic acidity has a vinegary taste and smell, like fermentation. When paired with sugar, it may create a wine or champagne-like flavour in the coffee.

5. Chlorogenic Acidity

Chlorogenic acids influence the coffee taste during brewing. Chlorogenic acidity is also believed to be responsible for the unpleasant bitter taste in coffee after it’s been brewed for too long.

What Affects Acidity?

Many factors affect the coffee acidity level, including location, coffee bean variety, soil quality, and the roasting and brewing process.

1. Location

Where coffee beans are grown affects the coffee acidity due to a confluence of factors like climate, soil quality, and growing methods, which vary by culture and region.

• East African coffees from areas like Ethiopia and Kenya have higher acidity, which gives them a fruitier flavour. Kofrika’s coffees originate from the Ethiopian highlands and have a soft, pleasant acidity that tastes like fruits and flowers.
• Coffee from Central America – meaning regions like Costa Rica and Guatemala – is often described as having a bright and sharp acidity. The flavour profile is diverse, containing hints of nuts, chocolate, fruit, and even natural vanilla.
• Coffee from El Salvador has an elegant flavour blend of subtle citrus, honey, and walnut.
• Brazilian coffee tends to be more chocolatey and less fruity. Common terms used to describe it are caramel, chocolate, and spices.

2. Coffee Bean Variety

Arabica coffee beans tend to be more acidic than Robusta. Robusta beans don’t have citric and phosphoric acid.

One reason for the differences in acidity between coffee varieties is the elevation. 

Arabica beans are grown at higher altitudes. Coffee plants grow slowly at higher elevations due to the lower temperatures, which gives them more time to absorb nutrients. The coffee cherries become more acidic and develop a more complex flavour as more nutrients are absorbed.

Robusta beans contain more chlorogenic acids than Arabica beans, which makes them more bitter. 

While this tends to be true for most coffees, it’s not always the case. Genetics can also affect the acidity of coffee beans.

3. Soil Quality

Mineral-rich soil, like those in volcanic regions, tends to grow coffee beans with a bright and fruity acidity. Soil that’s high in metals like copper and iron results in coffee beans that taste more chocolatey, like cocoa.

Other elements of soil quality, like porosity and drainage, can also affect the coffee bean acidity.

4. Roasting Process

In general, darker roasts have a bitter taste (lower acidity), and lighter roasts have a sharper and fruitier taste (more acidity).

5. Brewing Process

You might think that coffee acidity can’t be changed at the last stage – brewing your coffee. It’s true to some extent. You can’t drastically change the flavour profile – a fruity coffee will taste like fruit no matter how you brew it. However, brewing methods can change the flavour intensity.

Brewing pressure and temperature affect how much acid you extract from the coffee bean, which impacts the taste. For instance, with a shorter brew time, you might get a light fruity flavour compared to a more intense taste that comes with higher temperatures and longer brewing times.

You can quickly customise this with an espresso machine. Adjust the settings to customise the ground coffee level, water temperature, and brew time. Not satisfied? Try brewing coffee again with different settings.

If you prefer the manual process of pouring and brewing coffee with a filter, adjust the grind size for coffee grounds, water temperature, and filtering time to change the acidity. Manual grinding and brewing give you more flexibility and precise control over the final flavour compared to using an espresso machine.

Which Coffee Has The Best Acidity?

What counts as the ‘best’ acidity is subjective, but Arabica beans are the most popular type of specialty coffee bean. Their sweet and fruity flavours have a pleasant aroma, which appeals to many people. 

If you’re just getting into specialty coffee, Arabica beans are the place to start. Even if you’re a seasoned coffee brewing expert who’s found their coffee niche and favourite flavour profile, Arabica beans are a classic that rewards you with a superior drinking experience.

Kofrika’s Guji Shaakkisoo and Yirgacheffe Chelbesa beans have a light roast level and an aroma of tropical fruits and flowers. The acidity is soft and pleasant.

Conclusion

Coffee acidity creates an experience that’s affected by many factors, from the time a coffee plant is grown to when you finally brew it at home. Try different types of specialty coffee beans, or experiment with different brewing methods to find a flavour profile that you like.