White Coffee: Sweeter, Smoother, Supercharged

Even many coffee aficionados may not have heard of white coffee, which tastes nothing like its darker cousin and packs in more beneficial antioxidants.

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Even if you’re a well-informed coffee lover, you may not have heard of white coffee—unless you live on the West Coast of the United States, where the brew has plenty of fans—and its popularity is spreading.

Not to be confused with a “flat white,” a beverage made with espresso and steamed milk popular in Australia, white coffee is brewed differently than its darker cousin, resulting in a less bitter and more caffeinated drink. With a taste more like a nutty strong tea than coffee, it’s an interesting alternative for coffee and tea lovers looking to try something new.

White coffee is especially popular in the Seattle area, according to Daniel Olmstead, president of Poverty Bay Coffee in Washington State. It’s gaining traction nationally “as the health benefits and the higher caffeine levels have become known,” Mr. Olmstead told The Epoch Times. “The market for it is likely to grow as the word gets out there more.”

What Is White Coffee? Where Can I Find It?

White coffee results when coffee beans are roasted for a briefer period and at a lower temperature than conventional coffee. “By roasting it to this much lower temperature, you get a whitish-colored bean that is higher in caffeine because you roast out less caffeine,” explained Mr. Olmstead. White coffee can have up to 50 percent more caffeine than regular coffee, according to the Webstaurant Store, a restaurant supply company.

“White coffee has a sweet nutty flavor that has no resemblance to fully roasted coffee. It is much more like a strong white tea than coffee. It blends very well with white chocolate, rose, lavender, and any fruity syrups,” Mr. Olmstead said.

The Oregon-based drive-in coffee chain Dutch Bros, with locations in 14 states, is one of few large chains (or perhaps the only large chain) to feature white coffee among its brews. “White coffee is popular on our menu, especially for those that love a lighter, earthy, nutty flavor,” Brenna Bryan, a Dutch Bros. representative, told The Epoch Times.

“We believe that our customers love white coffee for the flavor, and [because] it has more caffeine than the traditional Dutch Bros. blend.”

Does White Coffee Have Health Benefits?

Mr. Olmstead told The Epoch Times, “Coffee is known to have beneficial antioxidants called chlorogenic acid. When you roast coffee, those antioxidants slowly are reduced the darker you roast it. Since white coffee is an extremely light roast, it does retain significantly more of the beneficial antioxidants.”

The potential health benefits of chlorogenic acid include “anti-diabetic, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity impacts,” according to a review in the European Journal of Nutrition. Because of this, chlorogenic acid may even “provide a non-pharmacological and non-invasive approach for treatment or prevention of some chronic diseases,” the review authors suggest.

Those who would like to avoid acidic foods may find white coffee a good alternative.

Because white coffee beans have not been roasted long, they are much harder and denser than traditional beans, according to the Poverty Bay blog. This makes white coffee beans difficult to grind on a typical home coffee grinder, so it is most often sold already ground. This makes it more difficult to find and a bit more expensive than traditional coffee, but the extra effort is worth it to white coffee fans.