When managing acid reflux (GERD) or symptoms of IBS, Barrett's Esophagus, silent reflux and others, understanding the pH scale is critical to controlling your diet. It’s the difference between relief and discomfort. The low acid diet just isn't about food only it's about what you drink as well.

For many people when we turn to coffee the thought of not drinking coffee anymore, it is not a tenable one. The good news is there are real options, fact based, scientific, and actionable. My goal with this post is to provide you with all you need to know about acidity and coffee. Let's start with the pH scale.

The Science Behind the Burn

If you can’t recall from High School science, here is a quick summary. The pH scale measures acidity and alkalinity, ranging from 0 (most acidic) to 14 (most alkaline), with 7.0 being perfectly neutral (pure water). We will only concern ourselves with the scale from 0 to 7, which deals with acidity.

Your stomach’s natural acid level is extremely low and very acidic (around pH 1.5 to 3.5). That is necessary to break down food. The problem for many people is highly acidic foods or drinks—like high-acid coffee—travel up the esophagus, or when they over-stimulate the stomach to produce even more acid.

[Image of custom pH scale graphic...]

II. Deep Dive: Understanding the Acids in Your Coffee

While the pH score provides the bottom-line proof of our low acidity, the true scientific story lies in the different acid types found within the coffee bean. It’s not just about reducing acid; it’s about neutralizing the right kind of acid.

Green (unroasted) Arabica coffee beans typically contain between 8% to 9% acidic compounds by dry weight. These acids are broadly categorized into two groups, each behave completely differently under the heat during a roast:

💨 Volatile Acids (The Flavor Architects)

These acids are highly reactive to heat and steam. They get their name because they are volatile—meaning they readily evaporate during the high temperatures of the roasting process and, to some extent, during brewing. (they voluntarily leave)

• Primary Function: Volatile acids are crucial for developing the desirable aromas and some of the flavors in coffee, often contributing notes of sweetness, sourness, or a pleasant tang (the "brightness" sought in lighter roasts).
• Stomach Impact: Because a significant portion of volatile compounds evaporate before the coffee reaches your cup, they are generally low risk for causing severe digestive issues like GERD or reflux.

🛑 Nonvolatile Acids (The Gastric Irritants)

These are the compounds that pose the real threat to sensitive stomachs. Nonvolatile acids do not easily evaporate under normal roasting or brewing conditions, meaning they stay locked into the bean structure. Nonvolatile acid requires a specific, controlled process—like our Slow-Roasting method—to break them down.

• Primary Function: These acids determine the body and intensity of the coffee, but they are also the primary source of digestive irritation.
• Stomach Impact: Nonvolatile acids present a high risk for stomach issues. They promote excess acid secretion and directly irritate the gastric lining. You can't simply brew them out; you must eliminate nonvolatile acids through processing.

III. The Chemical Culprit: Chlorogenic Acid (CGA)

For Mavericks, Chlorogenic Acid (CGA) is the compound we strategically target during roasting. For a typical Arabica bean, CGA accounts for 5.5% to 8.0% of the dry bean's weight.

[Image of the skeletal structure of Caffeic acid]

• Gastric Stimulant: CGA is an acid, but its real danger is that it acts as a powerful gastric irritant. It signals the stomach to produce more acid than necessary, creating the "overflow" that leads to painful reflux.
• Quinic Acid Formation: If CGA is not broken down during roasting, it continues to degrade when brewed or reheated. This degradation creates Quinic Acid, another nonvolatile compound known for its bitter, astringent taste and its ability to cause further irritation.

Let me explain to you how we approach the roast.

IV. The Acidity Paradox: Preserving Flavor, Eliminating Irritation

But it is not that easy? We just can’t go in and remove all the acid, because acidity is part of the flavor of coffee.

In fact, acidity is one of the most confusing attributes of coffee because it is simultaneously a sign of quality for a professional taster and a source of pain for a sensitive stomach. This paradox is central to specialty coffee.

Acidity as a Cupping Attribute (Desirable)

[Image of professional coffee cupping table]

In the coffee industry the standardized method for scoring specialty coffee ,“Acidity” is one of the ten key attributes in addition to body, balance, sweetness, uniformity, etc. Each attribute is scored from 1 to 10 and the scores from each attribute are combined to total a final score. If you are curious, all of our coffees are specialty grade 82 or better.

When acquiring coffees as part of an evaluation, I may receive an advanced sample and a “cupping sheet” with the coffees overall scores for each attribute. It may seem counterproductive as a low acid coffee roaster, but I will not even consider a coffee that does not have a good amount of acidity with a score of at least 7.5 out of 10.

From my perspective, I know how to shape a roast profile to eliminate CGA, but I can’t put acidity back into the coffee to give it a nice flavor.

The Mavericks Solution: Preserving Flavor, Eliminating Irritation

The challenge for roasting low acid coffee is to preserve enough of the desirable Volatile Acids (the "brightness" that earns high cupping scores) while simultaneously eliminating the problematic Nonvolatile Acids (the CGA that causes the pain).

This is precisely where the Slow-Roasting method shines:

• Preservation: Our controlled, precise thermal curve allows the desirable flavor compounds to fully develop and remain. (One small note here. We actually do not like fruity flavors in the cup, so we do not preserve those flavors.)
• Elimination: The extended time and sustained heat are specifically engineered to chemically degrade the Chlorogenic Acid (CGA) molecule, neutralizing the source of gastric irritation.

The result is coffee that can still have a pleasing sweet flavor and clean quality, on a cupping table, while reaching a lab-verified pH of up to 6.39—proving that you can have exceptional taste without the digestive cost.

💰 Cupping Score and the C. arabica Price Connection

The global coffee trade uses a standardized 100-point scale as alluded to earlier, defined by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA), to assess quality. This score determines whether a bean is sold on the volatile Commodity Market (C-Market) or the higher-paying Specialty Market.

The Mavericks Coffee Connection is vital because it reinforces your commitment to quality and purity: We start with a high-scoring Arabica all 82+ to ensure the superior flavor and complexity is present before roasting. Then the Slow Roast process will, if carefully crafted, preserve that specialty flavor while chemically solving the CGA/acidity problem, delivering a specialty-grade flavor experience that is also stomach-safe.

V. The Low-Acid Difference: Slow-Roasting Explained

[Image of the Slow-Roast Process Graphic]

The high pH of Mavericks Coffee is not achieved through chemical washing or artificial buffering; it is a natural result of our dedication to the Slow-Roasting process. We do not use any pretreatments or alkalizing agents. The entire process is straightforward, simple and natural. All other methods of reducing acids in coffee involve an additional step with a special processing for the beans. We like to keep it simple, natural, and organic. Plus, slow roasting is the most effective means of reducing acidity levels in coffee beans.

⏳ Time and Temperature: The Roastmaster’s Precision

How slow roasting works. In general, roasting coffee is time and temperature. All coffee beans are green prior to roasting. The beans are actually a seed of a coffee cherry with a moisture content of between 9 to 11% and have a green tint to them from the chlorophyll of the plant. Then the coffee beans are roasted on a profile. A profile is essentially a plan on how to apply heat and airflow to a batch during the duration of the roast.

Profiles will have a beginning and ending temperature, a plan for application of heat and airflow that will be modulated during the roast until the batch reaches the desired degrees of roast and the batch is evacuated from the roaster and cooled. Most roast profiles today are for a short duration of 8 to 12 minutes and have modest finished roast temperature. That is the low and lower temperature, that fails to degrade CGA

The slow roast method is not just running the roaster for a longer period; it is a proprietary act of precision engineering. The relationship between time and temperature must be constantly managed to create the ideal environment for chemical transformation.

• Sustained Energy: Unlike the more trendy roasting, which finishes quickly at lower finish temperatures, Mavericks uses an extended thermal profile of 20+ minutes. This extra time and temperature are critical to apply the sustained, controlled thermal energy necessary to chemically break down the troublesome nonvolatile acids, particularly CGA.
• Flavor Development: Simultaneously, the precise rate of temperature change over that extended time ensures the smooth, rich flavors develop fully through the Maillard and Strecker Degradation reactions.

By extending the roast and controlling the temperature curve at a granular level, we ensure the bean reaches the optimal point where acidity is neutralized and flavor complexity is maximized.

🔬 CGA Elimination

• Fast, Mass-Market Roasting: High heat applied quickly seals CGA into the bean, keeping the final product highly acidic.
• Mavericks Slow-Roasting: We employ a more patient, time and temperature profile. We roast coffee at high temperatures for a much longer duration. This approach maximizes flavor while naturally encouraging the breakdown of nearly all the harsh chlorogenic acid.

The Slow Roasted Taste: So is this all for real? According to science, this is all true. Not that we knew all the science before we started to Slow Roast. We Slow Roasted because we liked the taste. It was our customers' comments that brought its dramatic effect on acidity reduction to our attention. Then we had the lab verify what they were experiencing.

That's when I dove into the food science journals to learn more about what was happening under the skin of the coffee bean during the roast. Turns out, our Slow Roast profiles had surpassed the scientific requirements for time and temperature to reduce nonvolatile acids. That is why are coffee are so low in acidity and CGA. Now let's take a look at some of the data.

VI. The Mavericks Difference: Verified pH 6.39

Because our process is built on verifiable chemical science, our results are transparent and measurable. That is one of the beauties of measuring your coffee on the pH scale, all the subjectivity is out the window. The coffee is measured against an objective standard. The pH scale is a universal standard of measure all throughout the world, and professional labs have standards and methodologies that are used based on accepted guidelines to analyze and score a coffee. Here is how it works.

A standard cup of traditionally roasted coffee can sit dangerously low on the pH scale (around 4.5). Our independent, third-party lab verification shows a dramatic shift: our Dark French Roast reaches a pH of up to 6.39.

• The Logarithmic Impact: pH is logarithmic. Moving from a pH of 4.5 to 6.39 means our coffee is exponentially less acidic and vastly gentler on your digestive system.
• The Claim: When we talk about a coffee that is 97.4% less acid, we are stating that the acid remaining has been reduced by 97.4% from the high-acid baseline.

But don’t take our word for it.

🛑 The Robusta and Decaf Trigger Double Whammy

• Robusta/Cheap Coffee: Did you know that acid is not the only compound in coffee that might be a trigger? Caffeine is also a big part of coffee. Robusta contains a much higher percentage of Nonvolatile acids like CGA and nearly double the caffeine of Arabica. This is a **double whammy** of irritation. Your grocery store coffee that tastes bitter is immensely problematic for people with various sensitivities.
• The Decaf Double Whammy: It’s a misconception that decaf solves the problem. Traditional decaf presents a "Double Whammy" of irritation: **High Acidity (Low pH)** and chemical/stimulant residue (like Methyl Chloride) are not recommended in general and for anyone with a GERD, IBS, etc. I would avoid them like the plague. Mavericks decaf is engineered to solve both issues. It is Water-Processed and Organic (purity) AND Slow Roasted (low acid), delivering a verified pH of up to 6.3 and residual caffeine level of .004, it's the true stomach-safe option.

Certified Organic and Transparency

• 🔒 Access Our Independent Lab Analysis: That is why we have a 3rd party lab conduct the analysis, independent from us. They pick up the samples from our roastery and maintain the chain of custody till the report hits my email. When we get the Analytical reports from the lab, we post them as we receive them.
• CCOF Certified Organic: CCOF is registered agent to conduct and Federal Organic inspections and audits. CCOF visits us in person. They look at our methods, our processes, they audit our purchases, check with our vendors, the pull samples of coffee to test. This isn't just a marketing claim; it's a rigorous standard (its expensive too) that ensures every bean we source is:
  • Free from Synthetic Pesticides and Herbicides: Eliminating these chemical residues means a cleaner final product that won't add unnecessary irritants to a sensitive gut.
  • Sourced Repeatability: The word we like is “stewardship.” This ensures the beans are there for next time. From year to year and generation to generation.

Click Here to View Our Full CCOF Organic Certificate and Detailed pH Lab Reports.

VII. Finding Your Stomach-Safe Roast

Slow roasting also gives you a choice. Because we offer a full range of low acid options, you can choose a roast level based on your taste preference and level of sensitivity. That is another benefit of slow roasted coffee, you are not limited to a dark roast only. Our light roasts have less acid than other companies' dark roasts and that's by a country mile. All our coffees are very low in acidity.

We have been doing this since 2004. We are always working to tweak and improve things, but there is not much more we can do. All the hard work has been done. The taste is nice and the acid content is very, very low. In fact, if you can't drink Mavericks, probably no coffee will work for you. So, please, do not wait to grab a bag of Mavericks today.

Click here to shop our entire selection of Lab-Verified, Low Acid, and Organic coffees today.