Right now, a new trend is spreading through social media: drinking coffee with salt. And indeed, salt can influence the taste of your coffee in unexpected ways. Now you’re going to find out exactly what’s behind this “life trick”.

Depending on the coffee beans you use and the way you prepare your coffee, it can sometimes taste a little bitter. That’s where salt comes in. This home remedy softens the taste, as it has a particular effect on our taste receptors.

Many people drink their hot coffee with sugar to make it taste less bitter. But you can also use a pinch of salt against that unpleasant taste. “Salt can neutralize the bitter taste”, also confirms Britta Mattern of the German Coffee Association.

And indeed: salt activates the so-called type 1 receptors and thus deactivates the type 2 receptors responsible for the perception of bitter taste. As a result, drinking coffee with salt has also become a social media trend. Some influencers post photos and videos in which they add a pinch of salt to their freshly brewed coffee. But there’s another option.

Britta Mattern, for example, recommends stirring a little salt into ground coffee even before boiling it. This way, the salt dissolves better.

You need to pay attention to this

By occasionally replacing the sugar in your coffee with salt, you can reduce your sugar intake with this tip. But it’s absolutely vital not to consume too much salt throughout the day. The German Society for Nutrition (DGE) recommends consuming no more than 6 grams of salt a day. In fact, long-term excessive salt consumption can lead to high blood pressure and have negative effects on the cardiovascular system. To ensure that your coffee doesn’t taste too bitter, even without salt or sugar, you can try the following tips:

• There are different types of coffee, with bitter or less bitter tastes. If possible, choose coffee beans that are not too bitter. You can get advice on this from a specialist store.
• If possible, buy beans that have been roasted slowly and carefully. If the beans have been exposed to particularly high temperatures during roasting, they often contain bitter notes.
• If you prepare your coffee with water that’s too hot, you risk giving it a bitter taste. Try to avoid this mistake.

With these tips and a pinch of salt from time to time, you’ll never have to drink bitter coffee again. Have you ever tried it?