It's not just a legend, but a statement that has its reasons for existing: coffee has aromas that sugar can mask. Vincenzo Sansone, owner of Caffè Sansone in Naples, explained to us why it would be better to drink it black.

We all have that friend who, when they drink coffee, feels the incessant need to exclaim: "Real coffee is drunk black!" and we can almost hear your eyes roll every time this phrase is uttered... but perhaps, just a little bit, they're right, and here we want to explain why. We don't want to talk about nutritional values, too much sugar being bad for you and things like that, but rather focus precisely on the taste: because coffee possesses a unique aroma that, unfortunately, is not always appreciated and, consequently, not everyone knows about. Because coffee is certainly a pleasant break, an excuse to meet loved ones, but it is also a drink that hides an indescribable quantity of aromas within it.

Obviously, we won't try to convince you to drink black coffee, because everyone is free to enjoy it as they prefer. We just want to try and explain, from an aromatic perspective, why it would be better not to sweeten it: and to do this, we asked for help from Vincenzo Sansone, owner of Caffè Sansone and a micro roastery in Naples.

Black coffee is sweet
It's not a provocation or a contradiction in terms, but as Vincenzo explains to us, "a quality coffee, well roasted and well extracted, has a balance, a natural sweetness, a fruity acidity, and a hint of bitterness that is pleasant to the palate." So, if all we taste when we drink coffee without sugar is bitterness, then very likely there was a problem in the production or preparation of the coffee itself because "a good coffee doesn't need sugar, and if I taste too strong a bitterness, it means it was burnt."
And, well, we challenge anyone to want to drink something that tastes burnt and leaves an unpleasant taste in their mouth: and this is precisely why most people prefer to sweeten it "because sugar mitigates that strong bitter taste, it balances the cup and thus delivers a pleasant-tasting beverage. This often happens when coffee is roasted too much and ends up burning – which, needless to say, shouldn't happen." But, even if we are talking about high-quality coffee, it would be advisable not to add sugar, because this, in any case, "sweetens the taste of coffee and you risk not being able to perceive the full aroma but only the sweet taste of sugar."

So, when drinking black coffee, what should one taste?
"A good coffee should be sweet, aromatic, with fruity notes, it should linger in the mouth, have a slight acidity and the bitterness should not prevail," explains the owner of Caffè Sansone. Obviously, not all coffees are the same, and this is because it "grows at altitude, and the higher we are, the more aromatic and less caffeine it will have." So, depending on the area where the coffee is grown, it can take on a certain aroma or another. The harvesting should not be underestimated either, because "if you pick beans with defects, those defects will then be carried into your cup. And if there are defects," Vincenzo continues, "I will tend to roast it more to cover any negative characteristics, consequently obtaining a coffee with certain aromas rather than others."

It is therefore clear that the aroma of a coffee derives from specific precise factors such as quality, roasting, and also the extraction method. Because it is true that in Italy we are predominantly used to drinking only one type of coffee, namely espresso, but there are many others, and the way you extract it also determines the taste: "in espresso I perform a pressure extraction, whereas if I consider another method, such as the v60, I will perform a percolation extraction. These two different methods will give me two coffees with different tastes, even if I use the same quality. If I make an espresso," he continues, "with a pressure of about 9 bar, I could lose certain aromatic notes, the more delicate ones, because I would end up cooking them. The opposite is true in the case of percolation extraction, where I manage to retain all those volatile aromas, as it occurs at lower pressures. So, with the same coffee, I obtain two beverages with different tastes," Sansone concludes.

There are therefore no fixed and specific indications on what to taste when drinking coffee, because the taste can depend on many factors. In any case, if it hasn't been clear enough so far, to try and perceive all the wonderful notes present in a coffee, the advice is to savor it without the addition of sugar. And we are sure you won't regret it, take our word for it.