Why Adding Ghee To Your Coffee Isn't The Best Idea

Coffee is one of the most popular beverages in the world, with over 1 billion of us drinking it every day. Some only drink it socially, others need its powerful effects to get through the day, and some of us just love the taste. The beauty of coffee is there's endless reasons and ways to enjoy it, whether it's with sugar, creamer, milk, or lemon juice — pretty much anything goes. But is adding ghee to your coffee to reduce the acidity a good idea? The Takeout team spoke to former barista Matt Woodburn-Simmonds from Home Coffee Expert, who strongly recommended against it.

Woodburn-Simmonds mentioned that while adding fat will decrease the acidity in coffee, it's better to stick to something like cream, which has a far lower fat content than ghee. Even if you were to add less ghee than you would cream, he warned that "you're adding the same amount of fat and losing all the other vitamins and minerals that are in the 80% of cream that isn't fat." When asked about the right amount of ghee to add, Woodburn-Simmonds advised, "Zero. But maybe... a tenth if what you use is around 10% fat." Woodburn-Simmonds clearly prefers keeping his clarified butter for dishes like chicken makhani.

Woodburn-Simmonds went on to explain that coffee can taste acidic due to factors like bean type, roast, and extraction. "Arabica grown at higher altitudes will contain more acid than beans grown at lower altitudes. Basically as fruit ripens sugar goes up and acid goes down, high elevation means slow ripening means the acidity is maintained better while sugars develop." So beans grown in higher altitudes can have wine-like qualities, with citrusy and acidic flavors. And due to the slower ripening process, the beans develop stronger aromas and flavor notes.

He also mentioned that lighter roasted beans (which simply means they've been roasted for a shorter amount of time than medium or dark roasts) tend to be more acidic, since this flavor disintegrates in higher temperatures. This is why darker roasts have less acidity and more bitterness. Extraction can also make your coffee acidic, since its natural acids are the first elements to come out before the sugars or oils. So, if your coffee is under extracted, you'll be left with a highly acidic beverage. Woodburn-Simmonds finished by saying, "Proper extraction still has this acid but it's balanced with the sweeter notes that come later and the bitter notes that are extracted last." With these tips, you won't need to consider putting ghee in your coffee, anyway.