If you are like me, coffee is a rather important part of your day. It gets you up, gets you going, and keeps you going throughout your busy schedule until you are finally able to relax (which can be another great time to have a cup of coffee!). We all love delicious coffee, right? Below are 9 tips on how to make coffee taste better.
It is so important that the taste doesn’t even matter, as long as it is quick and convenient. It is probably safe to say that every coffee drinker has made their way through a gross or cheap coffee at one point or another simply due to a lack of other options.
If you are one of those people, then I have some good news: you may have choked down your last terrible cup! There are some great coffee hacks out there that can quickly and easily change a bad cup of coffee into one worth drinking to the last drop.
Want to know how to make coffee taste better? Let us look at the 9 tips on how to make coffee taste better.
Table of Contents
How to Make Coffee Taste Better
1. Bitter Coffee? Add Some Salt!
It may seem surprising, but the white stuff that you need to add to a bitter coffee is salt and not sugar. Research shows that salt can actually counteract a bitter taste in food and drinks, and even enhance the flavor.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic amount of salt to add to decrease bitterness as it depends on how bitter the coffee is and the kind of beans used, so start by adding a pinch to your cup and then add more if necessary.
2. Coffee and Cream Ice Cubes
Anyone who drinks cold brew coffee with ice cubes knows that once those cubes start melting, your coffee begins to taste watered down and weak. Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this: don’t use water for your ice cubes!
Instead of freezing water, try pouring some black coffee into your ice cube trays. Alternatively, if you like milk, cream, soy, or almond milk in your coffee, try freezing one or both of those! You can experiment with adding these special ice cubes to your cold coffee to find your perfect flavor. As they melt, they will only add to the flavor of your iced coffee instead of watering it down.
3. Spice It Up
One way on how to make coffee taste better is to experiment with spices. If your coffee is getting stale or needs a little extra something, then check out your spice rack. Some favorite coffee lover spices include nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, cocoa powder, or cinnamon. Cinnamon is an especially good choice due to its sweet taste and potential health benefits.
You can create your own specialty coffee by adding some spice directly to your cup, the coffee ground, or even to the whole roasted coffee beans. If you haven’t tried grinding your own beans yet, then check out our list of the best manual coffee grinders.
4. Reheat Your Coffee on the Stove
Sometimes you just do not get the opportunity to finish a cup of coffee while it is still hot. You can put it in the microwave, of course, but this is almost never good, as the microwave often heats your coffee unevenly and may even cause it to burn giving it an undesirable strong coffee taste. You could also just throw it out and brew up a fresh batch, but perhaps you are not the wasteful type.
Instead, try reheating it on the stove over low heat. If you heat it slowly and not let it boil, you’ll avoid that sour coffee taste that can develop from re-heating. It will be warmer and certainly taste better than nuking it in the microwave. Sure, it will not be as good as when it was freshly brewed, but it will be a drinkable cup!
5. Preheat Your Cup
If you want to help avoid the need to reheat your coffee in the first place, then consider the temperature of your cup. If your cup is cold when you pour freshly brewed coffee into it, it will almost immediately start to cool off your drink. Unless you chug your coffee back quickly, it may not be too long before you are sitting there with a lukewarm or even cold beverage.
If you want to keep your coffee warmer longer, then try preheating your cup by pouring some hot water into it before you add the coffee. Even just rinsing it with warm water will make a difference.
6. Invest in a Good Travel Mug
If you do not like your coffee losing any of its heat, then consider buying a quality travel mug. A good travel mug can keep your coffee nice and hot for hours, and really, they are not just for travel. No one says that you cannot use one at home! If you are at home working on a big project or the kids just will not let you sit down, then your coffee will be hot and waiting for you in a travel mug.
Looking for a good travel mug? Here is our list of the best coffee travel mugs in 2021.
7. Add Butter or Coconut Oil
Have you heard of bulletproof coffee? Essentially, it is coffee with an added healthy fat such as grass-fed butter, coconut oil, or ghee. It may sound like a strange choice when it comes to coffee, but it can be a frothy and delicious way to add some essential nutrients to your diet. Plus, if you do not have a big breakfast in the morning, it is satiating, keeping you fuller for longer and therefore less likely to grab a muffin or donut on your way to work or school.
8. Store Your Coffee Properly
Good coffee starts with a good coffee bean. If you want to keep your coffee beans or pre-ground coffee fresh and full of taste, then make sure you are storing them properly.
Your coffee is most vulnerable to light, air, heat, and moisture, so try storing it in an airtight container and put it away in a cabinet. Keep it away from the stove and direct sunlight, and make sure to close that lid tightly when you are not using your coffee beans or grounds.
9. Keep Your Coffee Maker Clean
One secret on how to make coffee taste better: brew it using a clean coffee maker. A lot of people neglect their coffee machines, especially the automatic drip coffee maker. After a while, the oils from the coffee and sediment from the water start to build up, and these can drastically affect the taste of your coffee. (Keep this in mind for those single-serve machines like Keurig coffee makers, as well).
Fortunately, it is easy to clean your coffee maker. Once a month or so, run a mix of half vinegar and half water through the coffee machine. This should loosen and get rid of any stuck-on dirt in there. Make sure you run a second pass with only clean water through it or you will be drinking vinegary coffee!
We hope these 9 hacks on how to make coffee taste better helped you. Do you have your own tips, hacks, or secrets on how to make coffee taste better? Share your tips and secrets in a comment below.
Pin Me!
