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Astringent Coffee

21st Oct, 2025

Sounds like a coffee brand, but it isn't!

It's a dry, puckering feeling where your mouth feels like sandpaper.

I had this exact feeling when I had my coffee yesterday. I thought I just made a bitter coffee until Aravind corrected me. He said it's astringent coffee, not bitter.

Bitterness is a taste. It's one of the five basic tastes, like sweet or sour. Your taste buds pick it up as a sharp, unpleasant flavor on your tongue.

Astringency is different. It's a feeling, not a taste. It's that dry sensation where your mouth feels parched and rough. All the moisture seems to vanish.

So what causes this dry feeling?

Astringency happens when molecules called polyphenols in coffee bind with proteins in your saliva.

Since polyphenols are large molecules, they're difficult to extract from coffee beans. However, when you over-extract coffee, they come out in full force.

And that's exactly what happened yesterday!

I fine-ground beans, overheated water, and let the coffee brew for too long. Basically, I just over-extracted coffee.

And the result? Desert-dry feeling in my mouth.

To avoid astringency in the future, I need to:

Pretty simple fixes, actually.

As for today's coffee? I didn't brew at all. Had a long day at work.

But I've got a holiday tomorrow. I'll brew a cup or two peacefully.


Reference: What is Astringency? by Coffeeadastra