Adding Little Salt Can Make Coffee More Enjoyable? This Is An Expert Explanation

Coffee illustration (Pexels/Luis Sevilla)

JAKARTA - To make coffee, adding sugar, milk, or cream has become commonplace. However, have you ever thought about adding a little salt to coffee?

Additional salt into coffee can actually have a significant impact on the taste. Effective salt reduces the bitter taste, increases the natural sweet taste, and even increases the taste of a cup of coffee as usual.

According to experts, a little salt in coffee can neutralize the bitter taste by affecting certain flavor receptors in the tongue without covering up the taste, as does sugar and cream.

A lorise of sodium ions dampens a bitter taste by inhibiting kuinina-like compounds and strengthening a sweet taste, especially in dark cassava coffee, said food science consultant Ed McCormick, quoted from Fox News Digital, on Tuesday, October 21, 2025.

The smoothing of bitter taste and texture by salt comes from how flavor receptors are activated. This is working food science, no need for sugar," he added.

Nutritionist Janelle Bober also said that adding a little salt into coffee would not affect most people's sodium intake. Salt can also be a substitute for sugar or cream in coffee, which does not provide additional calorie intake.

If you want to reduce sugar or calories, salt will be a better flavoring without affecting other components in it, explains Janelle Bober.

However, the two-time US barista champion and Klatch Coffee CEO Heather Perry said that high-quality coffee beans that are fresh are unlikely to need salt assistance to increase their taste.

"Adding salt can actually cover the spectrum of flavors that have been hard to create by roastery machines," said Heather.

However, Heather admits that coffee is ultimately personal. Everyone has their own way of enjoying it and nothing is wrong in any way.

"There's no wrong way to enjoy it if it makes a cup of coffee feel more delicious," Heather continued.

Meanwhile, adding a little salt into coffee is nothing new. In Turkey, a bunch of salt in coffee plays a symbolic role in traditional wedding rituals.

In Vietnam, there is salted coffee or ca phhe muoi which is popular in combiningipation with sweet condensed milk and salted cream. Then in Taiwan, there is marine salt coffee which has become a favorite menu for the community in many cafes.