“Light roasts aren’t really my thing.”
“I like coffee, but do you have something that isn’t sour?”
We hear this quite often at the coffee stand.
Of course we do.
But before immediately recommending a dark roast, we sometimes ask a few questions.
What kind of coffee tasted sour to you?
What do you usually drink?
How much acidity feels pleasant to you?
One customer came in looking for a coffee that “wasn’t sour.”
As we talked, however, it became clear that they didn’t dislike acidity altogether.
Coffee with a strong sourness was difficult for them to finish, but a certain amount of acidity was perfectly fine.
There was something more specific hidden inside the simple phrase, “I don’t like acidity.”
So rather than choosing a dark roast, we suggested an Ethiopian coffee from our lineup, Nigussie Gemeda, roasted somewhere between a light and medium roast.
It is roasted on the lighter side, but acidity is not the only thing you taste.
There is the floral character we love in Ethiopian coffee, a rounded acidity with a bright, fruit-like quality, and enough sweetness to make the cup easy to enjoy from beginning to end.
After finishing it, the customer said:
“That’s the first light roast I’ve ever really enjoyed.”
What made us happy wasn’t simply that they had come to like light-roasted coffee.
It was that somewhere beyond the words “I don’t like sour coffee,” there was a flavor they liked but simply hadn’t encountered yet.
Taste isn’t about being right or wrong.
It’s perfectly fine to prefer dark roasts.
It’s perfectly fine not to enjoy acidity.
And there is no reason to force yourself to like light roasts.
But even within flavors you think you dislike, a different coffee, roast, or brewing method might reveal a cup that feels completely different.
“Do you have a coffee that isn’t sour?”
There isn’t one correct answer to that question.
That is exactly why we want to understand what “sour” means to each person.
Is it really acidity that you dislike?
Perhaps the journey toward finding a cup that suits you begins with that question.
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