Why Does My Coffee Taste Like Alcohol? [4 Key Reasons]

Are you getting weird tastes with coffee assuming it might be alcohol? Don’t get panicked if some search results tag it a medical alert!

Some particular reasons behind this issue are in our hands. So, don’t worry! In this article, you will get actual insights. As a result, you might not have to face them again.

So, why does my coffee taste like alcohol?

Basically, there is more than one reason for coffee tasting like alcohol. You might face it due to the inappropriate washing style of coffee beans. It can happen due to using floral scent-based beans. Or even milk can be a factor to turn the taste into an alcoholic.

However, without discussing these in detail, you won’t get much essence. We will look closely at this issue here.

So, let’s cut to the chase!

4 Reasons Behind Alcoholic Taste

Does your coffee, especially cold brew taste like alcohol? What should you be concerned about? Well, we have some solutions to tell you over.

If you think it has been accidentally made into coffee wine, see our tips!

But first, let’s acknowledge if it’s really a severe problem or not! Basically, without pouring your coffee with alcoholic ingredients, this is not the ‘real’ wine.

However, does alcohol in coffee taste good? No, it mostly does not! Rather, you will experience bad and weird tastes from it.

So, taste feeling weird might be a problem as you never expect to have it. Knowing the exact reasons can be a quick hack, right? So, let’s figure these out closely.

You might find more than one specific alcohol taste appearing in coffee. Wine and Whiskey come first. Meanwhile, generic alcohol-containing nasty bleach flavor might also appear.

Reason 1: Misguided Washing

Let us amaze you a bit! Very few people are there who might consider the washing process for this particular problem. However, it’s the biggest reason indeed to get an alcoholic taste.

Usually, you need the coffee cherry washed off the beans. And the ideal way of cleaning is to use water.

Meanwhile, be careful if beans are dampened in the water for a long time or not. This issue might bring a weird taste to the beans. As a result, your coffee won’t taste as good as regular.

And mostly, it relates highly to alcoholic taste. More specifically, you might consider that a fermentation process is ongoing there.

In the meantime, no actual alcohol will be found. Even if you assume its existence will evaporate during the roasting process.

Now the question arises if the fermentation helps at all? Not even a bit! Rather, it might point to delinquency in the quality control.

At the end of the day, the only oddity is the unpleasant taste. No real danger or damage will be there.

This also happens when you don’t wash your mugs well. The residues can also start to ferment and cause the alcoholic taste here.

Reason 2: Floral Scent

Good Arabica can contain extraordinarily fruity and floral notes. You might find this scent in different wine products. So, your coffee tasting like vodka or wine now has another reason.

As a result, it might play with your psychology. However, there’s no alcoholic chemical or wine that gets mixed into the coffee. But still, your brain will get delusional.

So, you will admit this is a wine-based coffee while the reality is so different.

But it doesn’t necessarily relate to alcohol at all. However, many coffee aficionados admire this taste and don’t find it weird.

Reason 3: Connection Between Tastes

Usually, human brains love linking tastes with specific food items. And, it’s very psychological. Let’s show you an example!

For example, you have mixed vanilla or strawberry flavor in an item. A sweet fragrance will immediately pop up.

So, your brain must be considering it a sweeter dessert, right? That’s not the end. The same goes for your coffee.

In the meantime, many coffee lovers like bitter cream as a topping. Just like it explodes the sweet essence of coffee mixture, making it worse is possible too.

What if you had coffee after drinking alcohol to sober up? This act won’t let you think twice. You might  link alcoholic taste with coffee.

So, don’t get tricked by your own brain.

Reason 4: Milk

Check the status of milk while pouring it into your coffee. You should know milk is unlikely to stay for a while at room temperature. Once milk goes off, it might come back with a weird taste.

As a result, you will find that taste while consuming coffee. Not only milk but also creamers or relevant items that might affect your coffee.

Passing through a sniffing test for the milk is enough. It will show you whether it’s gone off or not.

Along with that, keeping milk in a refrigerator is suggested. Just like this, you might choose custard for your coffee mix. Still, you need the custard to get refrigerated.

In the meantime, preparing it requires enough cooking or mashing. As a result, the custard will hit the maturity level and won’t make any tasting issues.

Apart from all these reasons for this scent, there’s just another one. There are many coffee liqueurs which are very famous around the world. They obviously taste like both coffee and alcohol.

Solution

If it’s consistently disturbing your coffee experience, getting new coffee beans is ideal. However, focusing on milk or relevant items might give you the regular coffee taste.

But most importantly, wash your coffee mugs properly. Because as we have said, fermentation can start by residues in water. This can make the coffee taste like alcohol. So make sure to clean mugs properly.

To avoid all the hassle, here’s our recommendation for perfect cleaning kits for coffee-

ImageProduct NameFeaturePrice
Coffee Pot Cleaning Kit1. 1 Coffee Pot Cleaning Brush 2. 1 bottle of Urnex Clearly Coffee CleanerBuy it from Amazon!
McGuffey Coffee Residue and Tea Scale Cleaning Tablet1. Lemon flavor removes alcoholic taste 2. Coffee cleaning mechanism for residuesBuy it from Amazon!
Simple Modern Cleaning TabletsWashes tough odor and stain of coffeeBuy it from Amazon!
3PCS Adjustable Sponge Bottle Cleaning Brushes3 piece coffee mug cleaning brushesBuy it from Amazon!

In the meantime, being choosy when picking coffee beans might give you room to enjoy at your preference. As a result, floral or other peculiar scents will not come into the picture. 

Trying out coffee beans such as Robusta is ideal. These will keep tastes the same indeed.  

That’s it for the reasons and solutions for this problem guys!

FAQs

Why Does My Coffee Taste Weird Abruptly?

If your coffee’s taste gets weird than regular, you might take it as a medical alert. Nasal passage blocking could be the reason behind this. Also, your allergic issues, smoking or other irritants play a big role. Continuous sinus infection, nose polyps, etc., are also there in the pushing factor.

Does Alcohol in Coffee Taste Good?

Many people have a fascination for alcohol in coffee and they say it tastes good. Bourbon and Irish whiskey are the most popular among people. They use them  to spike up their coffee. This has a robust taste to the mixture.

How Does Kombucha Coffee Taste?

Coffee Kombucha contains a savory quality along with a fluffy, smoother mouthfeel.

It also serves low acidity and a little bit of carbonation. Kombucha usually comes with green, black tea where each brewed coffee base is present. However, medium roasts might be the suitable-most for coffee kombucha.

Final Words

Now, you have the answer to why does my coffee taste like alcohol?

Remember that there are solutions to this problem as we mentioned. Following them would mitigate this problem.

Best of Luck!