I've written before about the health benefits enjoyed by coffee drinkers. But some people find that coffee hurts their stomachs. There are a lot of brands of coffee that are promoted as being lower in acid and good for people with sensitive stomachs.
For example, Trücup coffee recently sent me some samples of their low acid coffee to try. I definitely noticed the difference in the acidity; the Trücup brand coffee is very smooth and mild tasting. In fact, I sort of missed the acidity, which gives coffee some of the characteristic brightness and edge that I find enjoyable.
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I can’t offer an opinion on whether or not Trücup is easier on the stomach because regular coffee doesn’t bother my stomach. But that would have been nothing more than anecdotal evidence, anyway.
It's Not About the Acid
The whole thing got me wondering about what it is in coffee that bothers some people. I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t the acidity of the coffee. For one thing, coffee isn’t all that acidic. On average, black coffee has a pH of about 5, which is the same as carrots. Trücup reports a pH of close to 6, or about the same as potatoes. And the most acidic coffees have a pH of around 4.7, or about the same as a banana. We're hardly talking battery acid here.