Coffee Facts: Why You Should Consider Eliminating Sugar in Your Coffee
Most coffee lovers agree, coffee is better without sugar. Let's explore why.
While you may think that this is health-based, you’d actually only be partially right. Sure, sugar has some adverse effects on health according to studies. However, there are other reasons that sugar and coffee should be kept far from one another. Learn more about it in this article!
The Case for Coffee Without Sugar
Many coffee lovers, as well as coffee purists, tend to throw shade on putting sugar in coffee. It’s not the most loved practice in the coffee loving community. Many of the beverages you’ll find at coffee chains that are packed with sugar are normally looked at as “not real coffee.”
Why, though? Is adding sugar to coffee that bad? Will a barista look down on you if you do?
Well, the answer is that adding sugar to coffee isn’t as sacrilege as many may make it out to be. However, it does take away from coffee, especially when you’re drinking high-quality coffee. If you’re drinking the best instant coffee, there’s good reason to avoid sugar in your coffee.
The Best Instant Coffee Tastes Great On Its Own
Often, people add cream and sugar to their coffee to try to avoid the bitter taste that comes with the caffeinated beverage. That’s not always necessary, though. In fact, most of the time, coffee stands tall on its own, as long as you’re buying the best coffee available.
Coffee is a complex drink. Sure, there are plenty of coffees out there that are, for the most part, bitter. However, we’d like to argue that those coffees aren’t the best quality available in most cases. When you’re drinking a high-quality coffee, you’re more likely to find flavors that are far from bitter.
Understanding What Your Coffee is Going to, or Should, Taste Like
If you’re buying premium coffee products, you’ll be able to tell what they’re going to taste like by looking at the label. There are a few different indicators to take into consideration, all of which are listed below. These should help you predict what coffee will taste like before ever taking a sip.
Type of Beans Being Used
When you’re drinking instant coffee, you should be looking for a specific type of coffee bean on the label. The best instant coffee is made from 100% Arabica beans. Arabica beans are smooth, and they provide a sweeter profile than Robusta, the other type of bean used for instant coffee. Robusta has made a bad reputation for instant coffee, since it’s so bitter, but rest assured, none of our instant coffees use Robusta beans.
Type of Roast
When coffee beans are roasted, they release different flavor profiles. As such, to find the best instant coffee for you that doesn’t need sugar to taste great, it’s important to understand different levels of roasting. The four standard roasts are listed below:
- Light Roast: Fragrant, floral, or fruity notes
- Medium Roast: Flavorful, traditional coffee flavor
- Medium-Dark Roast: Slightly bittersweet with caramel flavors
- Dark Roast: The most “bitter” coffee, with smoky or chocolate notes
As you can see, coffee flavors are very complex. They change based on roasting alone!
Coffee Origin
The origin of your coffee also makes a big difference in flavor. Different locations mean different growing conditions. As such, the coffee plants are exposed to a variety of different nutrients, and different origins have different flavor profiles as well. Some popular ones are:
- Brazil: Chocolate, spices, nutty
- Kenya: Savory and sweet, sometimes tart
- Central America: Fruity, nutty, spicy, cocoa
- South America: Acidic, nutty, chocolate, caramel
- Ethiopia: Syrupy, sweet berry
- Indonesia: Musty, dark chocolate
The Right Coffee For You Doesn’t Need Sugar
When you take all of this into account, it’s easy to find a coffee that’s going to work for you. Most of the time, when you find the right coffee for you, you no longer have to add sugar to it! This is exciting for a number of reasons, of course. First, it means that you get to taste a lot of different coffees to find the right coffee. Second, it reduces the time it takes to make the perfect cup of coffee!
The best instant coffee is going to provide all of the information you need to make a decision on your coffee. It’s going to tell you what beans it’s made from, how it was roasted, and where it’s coming from. With these three pieces of information you can accurately predict the taste of your next cup of coffee.
Alternatives to Sugar
No matter how great your coffee tastes, you may want to add a bit of sweetness to it. That’s totally fine! However, there are some alternatives to using refined sugars. Refined sugars affect the flavor balance of coffee more than other available sweeteners, meaning you get less coffee taste than you normally would. If you want to retain the flavor of your coffee but make it a bit sweeter, consider using these sugar alternatives:
The Best Instant Coffee Doesn’t Need Sugar
If you’re looking for a cup of instant coffee that never needs sugar to taste good, take a look at the selection offered by Waka Coffee! Our coffees give you all of the information you need to know to predict what your next cup is going to taste like. We’re proud to have the best instant coffee available, and it’ll never need sugar.
