Coffee with lemon is the latest trend that’s getting a lot of attention on social media, at least in your coffee groups. While coffee and lemon come with a ton of benefits on their own, how well do they fare together? Does it really work or is it just a placebo? Let’s find out.
Can we drink black coffee with lemon? You can add lemon juice or lemon slices to your coffee. It adds a citrusy tanginess to your coffee and it tastes sharper. A cold brew coffee goes well with lemon juice but other coffees work as well. Adding lemon to your coffee doesn’t bring any health benefits even though are a lot of myths about this concoction helping you lose weight and cure your headaches.
How To Make Black Coffee With Lemon?
So you’ve decided to try it?
Awesome.
Here’s how you make a black coffee with lemon (or lemon coffee, you choose).
First, you’re going to need ground coffee beans. You will use these coffee grounds to make your black coffee as you normally would. Once your black coffee is ready, pour it into a coffee cup.
Now, you can add lemon to your coffee in a couple of ways.
Using Lemon Juice
Simply add a spoonful of lemon juice to your black coffee and stir well.
This imparts the lemon flavor well and adds a nice acidity to your coffee. If this is the method, you’re going to use, then we recommend making a cold brew coffee as it will originally have less acid in it.
Using Lemon Slices and Lemon Peel
Please make a small slice of lemon along with the peel and push it to the bottom of your coffee cup. Leave it there.
This will not add that much acidity as adding lemon juice, but you will get a nice hit of citrus which is subtle enough to make it count.
You can also give the lemon slice a crush for more lemon flavor.
Here’s another question people often ask.
What happens when you mix black coffee and lemon juice?
When you add lemon juice to your black coffee, there is no visible physical reaction. Black coffee becomes a bit lighter and will now produce more froth when shaken.
Apart from this minor change, you will not see any issues.
Do keep in mind that you should add lemon to only black coffee. If you add lemon to coffee with milk (dairy or non-dairy), it can curdle fast and you would have wasted a cup of good coffee.
Here’s a related post: Why does Cream Curdle in Coffee?
Here’s another handy tip. Coffee with lemon tastes a whole lot better when served with ice cubes. That’s why prefer the cold brew as you will get a nice, flavorful cup of iced coffee lemonade.
Is Lemon Good In Coffee?
Adding lemon to your coffee brings a tangy freshness to the table. If your coffee is a strong drink like espresso, then some lemon juice will bring more flavor to it and will cut down on the bitterness. Adding lemon juice to a cold brew is much recommended.
If you’re torn between drinking lemon water or black coffee in the morning, then combining them should help.
Whether they have any benefits (discussed in the next section) is one thing, but it will freshen you up. A restaurant even serves coffee with lemon and calls it a ‘Thunderbolt’.
We’re not sure if it will be that strong, but you will surely enjoy the citrusy twist.
What Are The Benefits Of Drinking Coffee With Lemon?
Are there any benefits to adding lemon to your coffee?
The internet is full of theories and benefits that are not proven scientifically. Some of the benefits of coffee with lemon we often hear are weight loss and headache relief.
Is there any truth to these claims?
Let’s take a look.
Is Coffee And Lemon Good For Weight Loss?
It is believed that coffee when taken with lemon juice will help in burning fat. But there is very little truth to it.
Black coffee can help increase your metabolic rate, thanks to the stimulation of brown adipose tissue. This is an active fatty acid tissue that decreases with age.
These brown adipose tissues can generate heat and metabolize glucose and lipids thereby aiding fat loss (see here). When you complement the consumption of black coffee with a calorie deficit and exercise to burn calories, you might lose some weight.
But this result is mainly because of black coffee alone and not because of lemon. Lemon can improve your metabolism but is not known to help in weight loss.
If you’re looking for a miraculous weight loss result with lemon and coffee, you will be disappointed.
Does Coffee With Lemon Reduce Headache?
Coffee is known to make your headache better.
Coffee comes with caffeine which is a psychostimulant. When it comes to headaches, coffee behaves like an analgesic and helps to manage your headache (reference).
Caffeine’s vasoconstrictor effect helps to narrow the blood vessels and relieve you of your pain.
So yes, coffee can help with your headache.
But the addition of lemon to your coffee does not help your headache. Just a regular black coffee will do the trick. So no, you don’t have to add lemon to your coffee to get rid of your headache.
Also, keep in mind that excess caffeine intake will also cause headaches. If you take in more than 400mg of caffeine per day, then there is a good chance that you will have headaches.
Is Coffee With Lemon Good For Your Skin?
Both coffee and lemon bring several benefits to your skin.
Drinking lemon juice can help improve the production of collagen in your skin. This is mainly because of lemon’s Vitamin C content and it will improve your skin’s overall elasticity and tightness.
Coffee, on the other hand, can help in improving blood circulation on your skin. If you can use green coffee, you will get a lot more benefits for your skin.
Related Read: Is Green Coffee Good for your Skin?
But there is no evidence to suggest that you can reap more benefits when you bring coffee and lemon juice together. They work very well on their own, but their union might not offer anything extra.
Can Coffee And Lemon Help Your Diarrhea?
No, coffee and lemon will not help with your diarrhea.
When you are suffering from diarrhea, you will be dehydrated. As coffee is a diuretic, you are at risk of losing more fluids. Adding lemon to your coffee is not going to change that.
So avoid coffee when you are dealing with diarrhea.
Is Coffee With Lemon Dangerous?
Is it safe to drink coffee and lemon together?
This is another question we hear all the time.
As a general rule, having too much coffee can be a bad thing for anyone. Your daily caffeine intake should never go over 400mg. The average caffeine intake should be around 125mg per day. Also, some people might not do well with citrus fruits and juices. If you’re one of them, then you should avoid adding lemon to your coffee and keep your coffee intake within limits.
You should also exercise caution if you have problems like acid reflux and heartburn after drinking your coffee. This is mainly because of the acidic content of your coffee.
Adding lemon juice to your coffee will only increase the overall acidity in your coffee and that won’t help your acid reflux in any way.
In this case, it would be wise to avoid adding lemon to your coffee.
For some people, having coffee with lemon can even cause headaches. If you observe this, then avoid adding lemon to your black coffee.
Lemon In Coffee: Closing Thoughts
We are all for adding lemon juice to your coffee.
It tastes great and if you’re looking to cut down on that bitterness and add some zeal to your coffee, then lemon juice or lemon peel is a great choice.
But we don’t want you to do it for the wrong reasons. Taking your coffee with some lemon juice doesn’t bring a lot of health benefits. The ones we hear on the internet are baseless and yet to have strong scientific backing.