Coffee glossary
Acidity
The bright, lively, sometimes fruity or tangy quality in a coffee’s flavor — a matter of taste, not pH.
Tasters describe acidity with words like crisp, juicy, citrusy or winey. It comes from organic acids such as citric, malic and phosphoric acid, and it is usually most vivid in high-grown, washed and lightly roasted coffees. Brewed coffee is only mildly acidic in the chemical sense (a pH of roughly 4.8–5.1).