# Coffee and Salt?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 2, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428 "2003-12-02T04:23:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/1 "2003-12-02T04:23:52Z")
OK What Gives?
My narrow minded older brother who thinks people enjoy Pulp Fiction because of the curse words, and thinks that The Simpsons is stupid (even though he admittedly has never watched the program) adds salt to his coffee before he brews it. Not much, just a shake or two.
I have to admit, I enjoyed the coffee. It seemed to have kind of a nutty taste to it.
What gives? He learned it from his pastor. (~sigh~)
There are some actual questions here…
Have any of you ever heard of this? He added so little, I can’t imagine it really changed the taste. What would that small amount of salt actually do?
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### Author:  [@leenmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leenmi)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/2 "2003-12-02T04:39:53Z")
One of my first supervisors in the Air Force, fed up with the truly horrendous quality of my coffee, gave me three simple rules for making coffee on days she was working:
1. Use the coldest water possible. Warm water makes coffee sour.
2. Use a pinch of salt. It did something to counteract the taste of hard water.
3. When measuring out the coffee and I ask myself “should I put in another spoonful?”. Don’t.
I don’t know if any of her suggestions were based on fact, or if they were all just tradition (except number 3. I just couldn’t stop scooping.), but the coffee tasted a hell of a lot better.
I personally don’t believe it cuts the hard water taste, but it did seem to work.
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### Author:  [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/3 "2003-12-02T04:42:34Z")
I have heard that some people put in an eggshell when brewing up a pot. _Shrug_
I am guessing, but I imagine the same thing is happening that happens when you salt any food item, lightly. The flavor of the food is enhanced, but the taste of the salt is imperceptible. (Unless you put too much in.)
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### Author:  [@Merhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merhouse)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/4 "2003-12-02T04:53:12Z")
FWIW, a friend always uses a pinch of salt when she brews a pot of coffee. It tastes fine, and she insists it takes the bitterness out.
Being the renegade that I am, though, I never do it myself. ::shrug::
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### Author:  [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/5 "2003-12-02T08:29:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by leenmi \*
> \*\*2. Use a pinch of salt. It did something to counteract the taste of hard water. \*\*
That makes a lot of sense to me; a water softener runs off of salt, after all. Coffee in the house in which I currently live tastes like crap because of all the minerals in the water here; I’m going to give that a shot next time I make a pot and see what happens.
**Brutus** - Swedish-style coffee in my neck of the woods dictates an entire egg be thrown in the grounds. The coffee (grounds, egg, and all) is cooked in a pot then strained into cups. It’s really good. 🙂
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### Author:  [@herman\_and\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herman_and_bill)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/6 "2003-12-02T11:37:31Z")
Clancy’s “Hunt for Red October” had Greer?? making coffee with a bit of salt, he called it Navy Coffee, if my memory is still working
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### Author:  [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/7 "2003-12-02T12:22:37Z")
Master Chief Ortega was my guess, but that’s where I heard about it too.
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### Author:  [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/8 "2003-12-02T12:33:59Z")
Just been looking though the .tom-clancy newsgroup and there appears to be no definitive “Navy coffee”, although many people did talk about salt and not cleaning pots/filters.
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### Author:  [@SeekingTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeekingTruth)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/9 "2003-12-02T12:34:24Z")
WAG ( that’ll probably be discredited in a post or two)
Salt is used in cooking because it somehow opens the tongue cells that receive taste, therefore you get more flavor from the coffee. This is the only reason I can think to use it. But I use filtered water and grind my own beans, so what the hell do I know about making coffee?
Off to find the Bailey’s. 😉
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### Author:  [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/10 "2003-12-02T15:20:06Z")
A character in David Eddings’ ‘High Hunt’ Made coffee with salt and eggshells. Those two items seem to cropping up a lot.
Personally I just use Nescafe 🙂
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### Author:  [@CairaJade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairaJade)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/11 "2003-12-02T15:36:24Z")
Coffee and eggshells make good fertilizer. 😛
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### Author:  [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/12 "2003-12-02T15:56:58Z")
Salt does alleviate some of the bitter taste. Sorry no cite. ( I know it’s true because I read it on the internet. 😉 ). It does this with many foods. I don’t know how or why.
The protiens in eggs counteract some of the tannins in coffee the same way that the protiens in milk do.
I’ve always questioned the idea of using cold water, (depending upon the coffee maker/ process), to make coffee and tea. I also recall that Done Been Boiled water has fewer gasses dissolved in it and therefore is more mixable with oils. It seems that DBB water would make a better pot of coffee. IMHO, with my style of espresso maker, it does. (Of course DBB can be cold as well as hot.)
CItes for some of this if remember _and_ can re-find them.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/13 "2003-12-02T17:20:54Z")
In Clancy’s “Without Remorse”, John Clark is preparing for a mission on a submarine and drinks a cup of coffee with salt, described as “real Navy coffee”. First time I’d ever heard of it.
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### Author:  [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2003, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/14 "2003-12-02T19:53:17Z")
The naval practice of putting a pinch of salt in coffee far predates Clancy. Off the top of my head, I recall Ian Fleming mentioning it in his 1950s Bond novels. Diamonds are Forever IIRC.
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### Author:  [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/15 "2003-12-03T03:45:51Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by SimonX \*
> \*\*[Salt does alleviate some of the bitter taste.](http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/seasoning/kitchen/activity-quinine.html)
>
> [The protiens in eggs counteract some of the tannins in coffee the same way that the protiens in milk do.](http://www.stashtea.com/tt111298.htm)
>
> I’ve always questioned the idea of [using cold water to make coffee and tea](http://www.dilmahtea.com/Faq/faq.html). I also recall that Done Been Boiled water has fewer gasses dissolved in it and [therefore is more mixable with oils](http://abc.net.au/news/scitech/2003/02/item20030223073842_1.htm). \*\*
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### Author:  [@SeekingTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeekingTruth)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2003, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/16 "2003-12-03T10:49:47Z")
I can’t beleive I’m offering 2 WAG’s in one thread. Could the Navy coffee come from tradition of sailors long ago using sea water to make the coffee?
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### Author:  [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2003, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-salt/216428/17 "2003-12-03T18:56:01Z")
From the descriptions provided, this seems unlikely. The amount of salt added, ("just a shake or two"and “a pinch”), make this seem unlikely as sea water is considerably more salty than what these recipes would make.
It may be navy coffee in that it was drunk by sailors who picked up the practice in foreign ports.