Origins · 4 min read
Altitude and Acidity
Why coffees grown higher up taste brighter, and what "masl" on a bag actually tells you.
Most specialty bags list an altitude in metres above sea level, or masl. It is one of the most useful numbers on the label.
Higher farms have cooler nights, so coffee cherries ripen more slowly. That slower maturation lets the seed build denser structure and more complex sugars and acids. In the cup this reads as brightness: the blackcurrant snap of a Nyeri, or the citrus of a Yirgacheffe grown above 1,900 metres.
Lower-grown coffees are not worse, just different. They tend toward body, chocolate and nuts, which is why Brazilian and Robusta-forward coffees anchor so many espresso blends. Altitude is a guide to character, not a ranking.
“Altitude is a guide to character, not a ranking.”
