Okay this is a totally wild and hilarious coincidence, but I came home tonight and told my wife about this thread. Turns out that, today of all days, without knowing I was ranting about cold brew on HN, she did a careful home experiment with her coffee using baking soda, so I can report on what she found. She has suffered me complaining about fake cold brew and rude baristas before, but it’s been months since we discussed it. We do have some pH test strips sitting around from my investigations into different brewing methods, and she used 4 of them doing this experiment twice.
For each experiment, she made 2 cups of coffee, using 1 scoop of grounds (0.25 oz) to make a pour-over with 8 oz water heated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit for each cup. In one of them she added 1/16th teaspoon (which is a tiny pinch) of baking soda to the grounds before pouring the water over them. In the other cup, it was only grounds with no baking soda. She said she could see the water foaming in the cup with baking soda. She reported that there was no noticeable negative flavors at all, no hint of baking soda taste, the coffee made with baking soda was as good as the control, perhaps slightly better because it was less acidic. For the pH measurement, she measured a pH of 6 for the normal coffee and a pH of 8 for the baking soda added cup — it actually made the coffee slightly alkaline! PH of 6 sounds like a pretty weak coffee, I was usually getting a pH of 5 IIRC. PH strips are a pretty blunt measure and don’t give you fractional pH values, but she showed me the strips and I can confirm her conclusion. The 2nd experiment was the same setup, and the result was identical.
When I read your comment earlier, I thought it was a good question, but assumed baking soda would change the flavor negatively. I’m surprised to hear that it totally works, so I think you have a good idea. I might even consider making this my routine if it works that well. Now I’m curious if you can sprinkle in a tiny pinch of baking soda into an already brewed coffee and reduce acidity without damaging flavor…
I suppose this makes sense? Baking soda’s main flavor profile is bitter, but coffee is already bitter so I suppose it isn’t going to make things worse. (Compare this to its use in baking, where you have to be careful not to use too much so the bitterness doesn’t ruin the baked good.)
You are extrapolating baking rules-of-thumb but forgetting the chemistry that is happening. When you add baking soda to something acidic, you end up with less baking soda, you can even end up with zero baking soda leftover with enough acid, as the baking soda reacts with the free hydrogen ion and yields water, co2, and a sodium ion.
