Brewing Up an Acid Test for Coffee

In coffee circles, it’s long been taken as gospel that the presence of different acids in coffee are dictated by where the beans were grown, says Christina Birke Rune, a doctoral student at the University of Southern Denmark. “They say that you can specifically know where the coffee is from on the basis of which acidity you can taste in the coffee,” she says.

Identifying coffee origin by perceived acidity is part of coffee experts’ sensory evaluation process and even the …