Sugar in Coffee

Coffee in its raw state is a seed of a cherry-like fruit. It has some forms of sugar in, and we can delve into these and how they change during roasting another time.

Here, I am going to investigate the subject of sugar in coffee, or should I say adding sugar to coffee? For the record, I am not anti-adding things to coffee. Alienation is not my incentive here.

Why did it start?

Sugar in coffee started when coffee was bitter. Think coffee brewed on a campfire, dark roasted, smoky and bitter. It’s hot, perks you up but needs something, before you want to drink it neat.

Both members of my maternal and paternal families retailed and imported coffee in the 1800’s and I can only imagine the quality of what they roasted then. I only found this out in the last decade. I am guessing that cream and sugar were the norm. My assumption is based on how much coffee quality has improved over the last three decades alone.

Neatly, I have fast-forward the clock to current times. It is possible that we have passed peak coffee, as a quality measure. The highest elevations that grow coffee today may be the few that are able to grow high quality in the future, due to climate. This is where I return to the original statement.

Coffee can be better, sweeter and cleaner today without any addition. Most sugars have a flavour of their own too. This does take a little acclimatising but when you start to just taste coffee, its unique character and flavour, you open yourself to an amazing journey. By adding dehydrated sugarcane, refined or unrefined sugars these can drastically affect the taste.