Sometimes there's just something wrong - you buy high-quality coffee, have an expensive portafilter machine at home or brew your coffee by hand with love and passion, but it still doesn't taste right? It doesn't have to be like that.

Let's find the error together, so that from now on you can have really good coffee at home!

3 Coffee problems and their causes

Problem 1: My coffee tastes too sour

And here are 3 possible causes for coffee that is too acidic: 

1. coffee beans that have been ground too coarsely

Each coffee preparation method has its own grind. While the beans for an espresso that you make with an espresso machine are ground very finely, the beans for a coffee that you make with a French press should be ground coarsely. Take a look here, where we explain step by step which grind is best for which type of preparation.

If the coffee beans are ground too coarsely for your preparation method, under-extraction will occur. As a result, the acids are released from the coffee powder, but little or no bitter substances, which leads to an imbalance and makes your coffee taste sour.

2. the BURNING TEMPERATURE is too low

All our coffees are best brewed with water at 93-97 degrees. If your kettle doesn't have a temperature gauge, simply bring the water to the boil and let it cool for about a minute before using it to brew coffee. This will give you about the 93-97 degrees you need. If you use coffee water that is too cold, the finished coffee often tastes watery and sour. Maybe this is the cause of your problem!

3. cold coffee

Coffee quickly tastes sour if it stands for too long. So make sure you don't make too much coffee at once or keep it warm in a really good thermos flask. 

Problem 2: My coffee tastes too bitter

And here are 3 possible causes of overly bitter coffee: 

1. beans ground too finely

As we have already mentioned above: Each coffee preparation method has its own grind. If you want to learn more about this, take a look here, where we explain step by step which grind is best for which type of preparation.

If the coffee beans are ground too finely for your preparation method, over-extraction will occur. As a result, too many bitter substances are released from the coffee powder, which leads to an imbalance and makes your coffee taste bitter.

2. the scalding temperature is too high

All our coffees are best brewed with water at 93-97 degrees. If your kettle doesn't have a temperature gauge, simply bring the water to the boil and let it cool for about a minute before using it to brew coffee. This will give you about the 93-97 degrees you need. If you use bubbling, boiling coffee water, the finished coffee often tastes bitter. Maybe this is the cause of your problem!

3. too dark a roast

This cannot happen with Plaground beans. All our coffees are gently and lightly roasted. But with typical industrial coffee, it often happens that the beans are roasted at very high temperatures, so that the coffee bean almost burns on the outside, but is still almost raw on the inside. So make sure you know which beans you are using and switch to a lighter roast if necessary.

Problem 3: My coffee has no aroma

And here are 6 possible causes for coffee with too little aroma: 

1. your coffee is too old

Once the coffee package has been opened, it is best to consume whole coffee beans within 6-8 weeks and ground coffee within 4 weeks. 

2. your coffee is not properly cared for

Always make sure that you close the packaging of your coffee properly. You should also never store your coffee in the fridge or in a warm, sunny place. This is not good for it. The beans feel best in a dry, dark and relatively cool place. There are very nice coffee containers, such as the Fellow Atoms vacuum bean container. But the Playground beans keep just as well in the bag they come to you in. The aroma valve in our packaging ensures that no air from outside gets to your beans, but CO2 can still escape.

3. do not be stingy

If your coffee has too little aroma, it may well be that you are simply using too little coffee powder. Each preparation method has its own dosage. You can find our recommendations here.

4. water hardness

The quality of the water you use for your coffee plays a big role. If the water is too hard, the coffee will quickly taste bland. It is best to use filtered water for your coffee. You can get water filters quite cheaply, which is enough and will quickly make your coffee taste even better!

5. coffee beans ground too coarsely 

Each coffee preparation method has its own grind. Take a look here, where we explain step by step which grind is best for which type of preparation.

If the coffee beans are ground too coarsely for your preparation method, under-extraction will occur. As a result, the acids are released from the coffee powder, but little or no bitter substances, which leads to an imbalance and makes your coffee taste sour.

6. the scalding temperature is too low

All our coffees are best brewed with water at 93-97 degrees. If your kettle doesn't have a temperature gauge, simply bring the water to the boil and let it cool for about a minute before using it to brew coffee. This will give you about the 93-97 degrees you need. If you use coffee water that is too cold, the finished coffee often tastes watery, sour and loses its aroma. Maybe this is the cause of your problem!

Coffee problem solved?

Well, could we help you? If you haven't found the solution to your problem yet, just come and visit our café in Hamburg St. Pauli, we'll be happy to advise you. Or send us an email. Because no one should have to do without the perfect taste of coffee!