Holidays are the perfect time for enjoying and relaxing ourselves. With a friend of mine coming to stay at my home during the holidays, I was obviously elated. Together we had a lot of fun. Though I thoroughly enjoyed my friend’s company, one strange habit of her left me bewildered. Whenever she prepared coffee, she put a little baking soda on the grounds before brewing them. I had never seen such a thing before in my life, but my friend justified the habit by saying that adding soda to the coffee helped her sensitive stomach easily digest it. I was not impressed with her explanation.

Coffee Has an Acidic Nature

The benefit of acid is that it causes the coffee to brew up with a delicious flavor or brightness. This happens mainly in the coffee beans of single origin.  But exceedingly dark roasts and cheap coffee beans can be excessively acidic. Acid can hurt the sensitive stomachs and this can affect persons who tend to drink more than one cup of coffee a day.

This is the reason behind the church basement coffee becoming infamous for causing stomach churning. The cheap beans and big-batch brewing can lead to a highly acid cup of coffee. I came to know that my friend had actually acquired the habit of adding baking soda to the brewing coffee in the basement of a Baptist church.

Making Soda Has an Alkaline Nature

Baking soda proves effective for neutralizing some of the naturally occurring acid in the coffee. A little quantity of baking soda added to coffee can help to smooth the harsh taste of low-priced coffee and make it easily digestible. Whether beans or brewer, my friend does not miss adding little baking soda to the grounds before brewing them. To my utter surprise, the baking soda failed to bring any delicious flavor in the coffee.

A research has observed that the alkaline effects of baking soda on brewed coffee have no factual basis, and people encountering difficulty with coffee and facing digestive problems should go for a low-acid coffee or kick out the habit completely.

As far as I am concerned, I would rather spend money on superior-quality beans and entirely avoid the baking soda in my coffee preparation.  But out of sheer curiosity, I would like to ask you if you have ever experimented with adding some baking soda to your coffee grounds before brewing? Does this help you in making your coffee easily digestible?