Sweetness

Sweetness in specialty coffee is a natural sugar extracted from the bean through precise brewing. It does not taste like white sugar from a bowl, but rather like the subtle aftertaste you get from eating ripe fruit, milk chocolate, or caramel. It appears in the cup right after the acidity, balancing the entire brew. When coffee is brewed correctly, this natural sweetness makes adding sugar completely unnecessary. It is easiest to notice in naturally processed coffees (where the coffee cherries dry whole in the sun), as the sugars from the fruit pulp have more time to soak into the bean.