Titratable Acidity, Perceived Sourness, and Liking of Acidity in Drip Brewed Coffee
Abstract
Acidity is a highly prized attribute in coffee, but there is little understanding of the brewing conditions under which acidity contributes favorable sensory attributes versus unfavorable sourness. Here, we examine the effect of titratable acidity and pH on the perception of sourness and consumer acceptance in drip brew coffee. Sour perception and acidity liking were assessed over a wide range of brew strengths and extraction yields at three different roast levels (light, medium, dark) and three different brewing temperatures (87 °C, 90 °C, and 93 °C). We find that perceived sour intensity correlates weakly with pH, but strongly with titratable acidity. Increases in titratable acidity also yielded increases in consumer perception of “too much acidity” and also impacted consumer liking and consumer preference segmentation with one cluster of consumers preferring more acidic coffee. Importantly, our data show that titratable acidity is linearly correlated with total dissolved solids (TDS) under all conditions studied, indicating that TDS is a good proxy for titratable acidity. The results presented here will provide the coffee industry with insight toward controlling perceived acidity or sourness, a key sensory attribute that substantially impacts consumer acceptance.
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Most coffee sensory studies of brewed coffee focused on pressurized espresso brew or flow-based drip brew, while there are comparatively fewer sensory studies on full immersion brewing methods other than a few recent ones focused on cold brew.
“While most coffee sensory studies of brewed coffee focused on pressurized espresso brew or flow-based drip brew2,4,6–10, there are comparatively less sensory studies on full immersion brewing methods other than a few recent ones focused on cold brew10–14.”
From Sensory analysis of the flavor profile of full immersion hot, room temperature, and cold brewed coffee over time (2024) · cites this paper as [7]
Titratable acidity is correlated with perceived sourness.
“Since titratable acidity is correlated with perceived sourness7, our results indicated that the light roast was more sour/acidic than the dark roast regardless of brewing temperature or brew time.”
From Sensory analysis of the flavor profile of full immersion hot, room temperature, and cold brewed coffee over time (2024) · cites this paper as [7]
Sour flavor consistently has a negative relationship with PE, with low PE coffees perceived as sourer.
“Sour flavor, on the other hand, consistently has a negative relationship with PE, with low PE coffees perceived as sourer [13,15,16].”
From Sensory Analysis of Full Immersion Coffee: Cold Brew Is More Floral, and Less Bitter, Sour, and Rubbery Than Hot Brew (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
Titratable acidity was shown to correlate positively with TDS independent of brew temperature in hot brewed coffee, at least over the range 87 to 93 °C.
“Titratable acidity was shown to correlate positively with TDS independent of brew temperature in hot brewed coffee, at least over the range 87 to 93 °C [15].”
From Sensory Analysis of Full Immersion Coffee: Cold Brew Is More Floral, and Less Bitter, Sour, and Rubbery Than Hot Brew (2022) · cites this paper as [15]
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Batali, M. E., Lim, L. X., Liang, J., Yeager, S. E., Thompson, A. N., Han, J., Ristenpart, W. D., & Guinard, J.-X. (2022) · Foods · doi:10.3390/foods11162440 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
“Sour flavor, on the other hand, consistently has a negative relationship with PE, with low PE coffees perceived as sourer [13,15,16].”
BackgroundSelf-citationLiang, J., Batali, M. E., Routt, C., Ristenpart, W. D., & Guinard, J.-X. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-69867-6 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
“Since titratable acidity is correlated with perceived sourness 7 , our results indicated that the light roast was more sour/acidic than the dark roast regardless of brewing temperature or brew time.”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Batali, M. E., Cotter, A. R., Frost, S. C., Ristenpart, W. D., & Guinard, J.-X.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Batali, Mackenzie E.
- Venue
- ACS Food Science & Technology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2021-03-29
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 559-569
- ISSN
- 2692-1944 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3142525938
- Semantic Scholar
- 721fa4f605fd61a469da061d66fa255a312e045b
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 4.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- ACS Food Science & Technology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Specialty Coffee Association
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Coffee research and impacts
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Chemistry and Fat Analysis
- Keywords
- coffee acidity, titratable acidity, brewing temperature, extraction yield, total dissolved solids, pH, consumer liking, sensory properties
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