Best Low Acid Coffee Brands in 2024 (For Sensitive Stomachs) (2025)

We swear by Lifeboost, Fabula Coffee and Volcanica brands in this niche.

Photo: Julia Bobak

Low acid coffee can be a great choice for individuals who desire a coffee experience that’s gentle on the stomach. The acids in coffee give it a bright, tart flavor that many find appealing. But not all coffee drinkers are created equal. For those with sensitivities, acidic coffee may lead to heartburn, acid reflux, or tooth decay.

Sensitive stomach? Don’t like the taste of acidic coffee? Rather than skipping your morning coffee (oh god), try coffee beans selected and roasted specifically for low acidity levels.

We’ve tasted our way through dozens of low-acid coffee brands to bring you this list of the top 7 most delicious coffees. Plus, I’ve collected everything I learned along the way into a handy buyer’s guide to choosing the best low-acid coffee beans.

HOW WE PICKED THE COFFEES

The 7 Best Low-Acid Coffee Brands in 2024

If you’re worried your acid sensitivity will confine you to a few low-end coffee options, your fears are unfounded. Some of the coffees on this list are among the world’s best beans, including craft blends and specialty single origins. With a diversity of flavor profiles and origins, there’s a coffee here for everyone!

Product	Brand	Details
Best Overall Best Overall	Lifeboost Coffee	Light, Medium, or Dark Varying tasting notes Nicaragua origins	CHECK PRICE
RUNNER-UP RUNNER-UP	Fabula Coffee	Light, Medium, Dark Roasts Varying Tasting Notes Mexico, Peru, Colombia, or Brazil	CHECK PRICE
Best Blend Best Blend	Volcanica Coffee Low-Acid Blend	Medium roast Chocolate, Nuts, and Tangerine notes South America, Sumatra origins	CHECK PRICE
Best Single Origin Best Single Origin	Out Of The Grey Sumatra Mandheling	Medium-dark roast Marshmallow, Smooth, Full-Bodied notes Sumatra, Indonesia origin	CHECK PRICE
Great Health Benefits Great Health Benefits	Purity Coffee Ease	Dark roast Dark Chocolate, Walnut, Brown Spices notes Origins n/a	CHECK PRICE
Best For Coffee Geeks Best For Coffee Geeks	Koa Coffee Grand Domaine	Medium-Dark roast Nuts, Honey, Sweet Fruit notes Hawaii, USA origin	CHECK PRICE
Budget Pick Budget Pick	Puroast Organic French Roast	Dark roast Smooth, rich, and flavorful notes n/a	CHECK PRICE

Lifeboost Coffee was founded by a physician to grow, process, and roast the healthiest possible coffee. There are now many brands spouting this ethos, but Lifeboost was the first, and it remains our favorite – both in flavor and variety.

We couldn’t choose just one coffee to recommend. Everything from the brand is specialty grade, low-acid, GMO-free, and third-party tested to be free of contaminants. So go ahead and choose whatever roast level or flavor profile speaks to you; you won’t be disappointed.

We stuck with two best-sellers for our tests: the Grata Medium Roast and the Embolden Dark Roast.

The Embolden Dark Roast coffee had a pH of 6.23 in our tests.

Our tasters noted flavors of dark chocolate, toasted almond, hazelnut, caramel, and ripe berries, and everyone commented on the powerful aroma.

The Medium Roast coffee tested marginally higher in acidity and delivered greater flavor complexity. It had a creamy body and gentle sweetness. I tasted milk chocolate, honey, and jammy fruit. This brew is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

There are plenty of options if neither of those appeals. Lifeboost also sells darker and lighter roasts, blends designed for cold brew or espresso, decaf coffee, and a huge selection of flavored beans.

Lifeboost low acid organic coffee is available through Amazon, but I highly recommend buying directly from the brand. They roast your beans to order, so you’re guaranteed a fresher and more flavorful cup of coffee.

Fabula Coffee is a newer brand following in Lifeboost’s footsteps. It was founded on the simple premise of making healthy, USDA-certified organic coffee beans widely available. The founders traveled extensively and partnered with small farmers to source naturally low-acid single-origin coffees.

Most Fabula Coffee is sourced from Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, and they offer seasonal specials sourced from other top growing regions. It’s all Organic, Fair Trade, and GMO-free, and tested free from mycotoxins and other contaminants.

The top seller is the Medium Roast, which we sampled for this review. These beans from Peru yielded a full-bodied brew with a round mouthfeel.

One of our tasters remarked, “This makes me think pecan pie.”

Fabula Coffee offers whole bean coffee, ground coffee, and coffee pods and carries an extensive selection of decaf and flavored options. Like Lifeboost, Fabula Coffee is roasted to order, so you can trust your coffee will arrive at its flavor peak. Read Home Grounds’ Fabula Coffee review to learn more.

Volcanica Coffee is a leading online coffee bean company that supplies some of the finest gourmet coffees on the market. Their beans come from the best growing regions worldwide, especially those defined by rich volcanic soil – a condition renowned for yielding incredibly high-quality coffee.

The Volcanica Low-Acid Coffee Blend is carefully crafted using beans that are naturally low in acidity, sourced primarily from low-elevation growing regions in Brazil and Sumatra. The beans are taken to a medium roast slowly, with the longer roast time serving to reduce acid levels further. I tested the pH at 5.3, which is less acidic than a standard medium roast, though not the lowest on this list.

Our tasters loved its more nuanced flavors, brightness, and clean cup, especially when brewed with a V60. I, again, tasted milk chocolate, toasted nuts, and notes of sweet orange.

Volcanica Low-Acid Coffee comes in a decaf vesion as well – a great choice if you’re looking for a low-acid decaf.

Coffees from Sumatra are often low-acid due to the unique processing method used in the region. Sumatra is one of the wettest climates where coffee is grown, so sun drying isn’t an option. Instead, a process called “wet-hulling” (aka Giling Basah) is used, which yields low acid coffee beans with a full body and distinct earthy character.

Sumatran beans shine with a medium or dark roast and are a popular addition to espresso blends. But it takes a skilled roaster to produce an exceptional Sumatran single origin. Out Of The Grey is one such roaster.

Our taster’s notes included descriptors like, “earthy,” “dark chocolate,” black currant,” “spices,” and “tobacco.” None of us managed to get the marshmallow the roaster suggests as a tasting note, but regardless, it’s a wonderfully complex brew we would happily recommend to anyone – regardless of acid sensitivity.

Out Of The Grey sources this coffee from a women’s cooperative founded in 2017 in the Gayo region of Sumatra. The co-op leadership is all women, and its members are 80% women and mostly young. Buying this coffee supports an up-and-coming generation of Sumatran coffee farmers.

We’re fans of Purity Coffee because of their rigorous commitment to scientific research. They don’t just say their coffee is high in antioxidants. If you visit their site, you’ll find supporting data and links to relevant peer-reviewed papers. It’s hard not to admire that accountability. Of course, it helps that the coffee tastes great!

Purity is not a low-acid coffee brand. In fact, their claim to fame is that their coffee is higher than average in antioxidants, including chlorogenic acid. The exception is Purity Ease, their dark roast blend, which was crafted specifically to enhance digestion.

Our taste-testers quickly pointed out that this coffee is between medium to dark; it’s certainly paler than Lifeboost Embolden. That is by design. Purity roasts enough to reduce the acid content to about half that of their medium roast but not enough to allow the formation of potential carcinogens that emerge at high temperatures.

The Purity Ease coffee I tasted was crowd-pleasing and incredibly versatile.

The dominant flavor was dark chocolate, but tasters also noted subtle hints of nuts, brown sugar, cloves, and raisins.

Purity takes our prize for Healthiest Coffee not just because it’s high in antioxidants and free from mold, mycotoxins, and other contaminants; it’s also healthy for the planet. The beans are grown on biodynamic farms and are Rainforest Alliance and Bird-Friendly certified – two of the most rigorous sustainable coffee certifications.

Hawaiian Kona coffee is widely regarded as among the best in the world, grown in the rich volcanic soils of Hawaii’s Big Island. Hawaii falls at a higher latitude than most coffee-growing regions, which allows coffee to be grown at much lower altitudes (1).

It’s important to be wary of buying Kona coffee as the industry is rife with scammers. Always make sure what you’re buying is labeled “100% Kona Coffee,” and for an extra layer of safety, stick with a Hawaiian brand that grows coffee right on its own estate – a brand like Koa. Not only do they offer real-deal Kona beans, but they have the specific expertise to process and roast them for the best flavor.

The Koa Grande Domaine beans are the brand’s top-of-the-line option, a carefully crafted blend of high-quality Kona beans and even-higher-quality Kona Peaberry. They don’t come cheap, but if you’re a coffee geek splurging on Kona, we think you should treat yourself to the best. Or maybe that’s just what we told ourselves as we put these beans on the credit card…

Our taste tests did away with any question of buyer’s remorse.

The roast level is somewhere between medium and dark, perfect for keeping acidity levels in check and flavor levels high. I could taste toasted nuts with a gentle honey sweetness and hints of tropical fruit. I totally understand why this coffee won a Kona Coffee Cupping Contest (say that three times fast) for its quality.

Puroast Organic French Roast Coffee is the outlier on this list as it isn’t a premium specialty coffee, and we bought it from Amazon. But we thought it was important to include a readily available coffee at an affordable price.

Puroast uses a unique roasting process that develops the coffee slowly with indirect heat. The result is less-acidic and bitter coffee that still maintains much of its antioxidant content.

This organic blend has the darkest roast of any coffee on this list. It has a full body and dense mouthfeel with a robust flavor that isn’t overly complex. It has a lovely, prominent aroma that turned heads during testing.

I preferred this coffee brewed with a metal-filter method like a French press to enhance its heavy body, and it takes very well to milk. Our tasters noted coffee flavors like “smoky,” “toasted nuts,” bittersweet chocolate,” “prunes,” and “molasses.”

If you can handle a little more acidity, we also enjoyed Puroast’s Low Acid Coffee House Blend. It’s a bit more complex than the darker roast, with notes of ripe fruits, chocolate, and caramel. Thoughl, my personal preference is still their French Roast.

How We Made This List Of The Best Low-Acid Coffees

You might wonder why this list lacks the same low-acid brands you’ve seen on other sites – things like Mommee coffee, Tieman’s Fusion coffee, and Trader Joe’s French Roast coffee.

Sure, those are the coffees you’ll see if you search “low-acid coffee” on Amazon (and the coffees that are netting those other sites nice Amazon affiliate checks), but you don’t need our help for that.

We used our expertise to find incredible reduced acid coffees that haven’t spent time parked in an Amazon warehouse. Most of the options on this list are available fresh from the roaster. We believe low acidity shouldn’t mean low flavor.

Testing

We brewed every coffee on this list in two ways: in a French press with a metal filter and a pour-over coffee maker with a paper filter. We performed two sets of tests on each.

First, each coffee was tested with a pH meter to determine its acidity level. To qualify as low in acidity, every coffee needed a pH higher than 5, the average pH of coffee.

Then, all coffees were taste tested by three members of our team who noted body, aroma, flavor profile, and any other noteworthy traits. None of our team members suffer from acid reflux, so this wasn’t a trial to see if the coffee bothered anyone’s stomach. We just wanted to ensure we were recommending delicious coffee.

How To Buy The Best Low Acid Coffee

Here are some tips for finding great low-acid coffee in case none of the options on this list strike your fancy. And don’t forget the key rules for buying any coffee still apply – quality sourcing, freshly roasted, freshly ground.

A Quick Primer On Acidity in Coffee

Acidity is measured on the pH scale, which ranges from 0 (extremely acidic) to 14 (extremely basic), with pure water falling square in the middle at 7. Most traditional coffee has a pH around 5, which is less acidic than orange juice (pH around 3.5) but more acidic than milk (pH around 6.5) (2).

The main acid in coffee is chlorogenic acid, and there are significant amounts of other organic acids like quinic acid, citric acid, malic acid, phosphoric acid, and acetic acid. They contribute bright, sweet, and fruity flavors (3).

Chlorogenic acid is an anti-oxidant credited with many of coffee’s health benefits, including reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. However, if you have an acid sensitivity, those benefits aren’t worth the pain.

What Makes Certain Coffees Less Acidic?

There are two main factors dictating a coffee’s acidity level: where it was grown and how it is processed.

Coffee grown at lower elevations is naturally lower in acidity. Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, is well-known for its mellow coffees grown at low altitudes. Other regions producing naturally low in acid coffee beans include:

• Sumatra, Indonesia
• Peru
• Guatemala
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Hawaii, USA

Processing methods with high moisture levels also lower the acidity of coffee beans. The most common is wet-hulling (aka Giling Basah), which is common in Indonesia. Monsooning is a similar processing technique popular in Southeast Asia and India. Any coffee processed by one of these two methods will likely be gentle on your stomach.

Chlorogenic acid content decreases the longer a coffee is roasted, so we know that dark roast coffee is less acidic than light roast. However, skilled roasters can use the roast profile to further adjust a coffee bean’s acidity. Coffees roasted “lower and slower” tend to be less acidic. But that’s a simplification. Roasting is a complicated balance, which is why we only recommend brands with knowledgeable head roasters.

Can You Lower The Acidity Of Regular Coffee?

If you already have a favorite coffee you don’t want to give up, there are a few tricks to reduce its acidity. Check out our article on coffee acidity to learn more about the details, but start with these two.

Brewing Methods

Cold brewing is the best coffee making method to limit acidity in your brew. Cold brew coffee is less acidic because many acids are only extracted from whole coffee beans at high temperatures. It’s a great option if you light roasts but find them too hard on your stomach when brewed hot. Theoretically, you could even cold brew a coffee and then warm up the result to still enjoy a toasty beverage – though don’t expect the same flavor profile.

Additives

Adding dairy when you drink coffee is one way to temper its acidity. If black coffee upsets your digestion, consider adding a splash of cream or milk.

Can’t resist a black brew? Adding a pinch of salt or eggshells to the coffee during brewing has been shown to reduce acidity and bitterness. This is also a great trick to improve the flavor of low-quality beans – not that we would ever advise buying low-quality beans.

The Verdict

Opt for Lifeboost coffee if you’re looking for a crowd-pleasing low-acid coffee brand that doesn’t skimp on flavor. They offer roast levels and flavor profiles to appeal to every palate, but no matter which coffee you choose, you know it’s low in acid, third-party tested, and GMO-free. Plus, their commitment to roasting beans to order guarantees your coffee arrives on your doorstep as fresh and flavorful as possible. Happy brewing!