Coffee Tastes Bitter? Here Why, And How To Fix It

Bitter coffee comes down to two things: (1) bad beans and (2) bad brewing.

If you buy low-grade, robusta species, or super dark roast beans—I'm sorry—but there's nothing to be done there. Low-quality coffee just tastes bitter, which is why we suggest buying specialty-grade beans (the highest quality grade).

But if you're already buying good beans, the problem… is you.

(No offense, we're here to help.)

Bitter coffee is usually over-extracted coffee. Essentially, the beans get over-brewed and start to give off extra flavors you don't want in your cup—all the bitter stuff.

We go into detail about the stages of extraction in this blog, if that sounds interesting to you.

So here's how over-extracted coffee usually happens:

• Your beans are ground too finely. The smaller the coffee ground, the faster the water extracts flavors from it—the bigger the ground, the more time it takes. So if you're using coffee grounds that are too fine, they'll give off all their balanced flavors and then move onto the not-so-good stuff.

• You brewed the grounds for too long. There's a sweet spot where the coffee tastes just right, but if you pass it, that's when the extra bitter flavors come from. With a french press, maybe you waited too long to press down the filter. With a pour over cone, maybe your grounds are so fine that the water took too long to drain (extending the brew time beyond that sweet spot).

• Your water is too hot. Water between 195 and 205 degrees is best for making balanced coffee (according to science). Go any hotter and you can easily over-extract all the bitter flavors earlier than they're supposed to come.

• You used too much water. If you blew past a balanced coffee to water ratio and used too much water, that means each individual coffee ground had access to more water than it needed—so it was able to extract more than is ideal (the bitter stuff).

Now here's the thing: everyone enjoys a different amount of bitterness—and that's a good thing. You shouldn't ever feel weird about liking beans that are more bitter than the person next to you does.

Go with what makes you happy. That's what coffee's all about anyway.t