Triathlete Magazine recognizes trücup as smart pick for athletes who struggle with heartburn or acid reflux but still want coffee’s natural performing-enhancing benefits.
Why acid reflux hits endurance athletes harder
It's not just the coffee. Athletes who train at high intensity deal with acid reflux at higher rates than the general population, and the mechanism isn't complicated: sustained aerobic effort puts repeated mechanical pressure on the stomach and diaphragm, the same physical forces that push acid upward. Add an empty stomach at a 6am training session, dehydration through long efforts, and the LES-relaxing effect of caffeine, and you have a reliable recipe for reflux.
For casual coffee drinkers, switching brands can be enough. For athletes who train hard and depend on caffeine for performance, it's a trickier equation — because the answer isn't to drop coffee, it's to find one that doesn't work against you.
The caffeine stays. The acid doesn't.
trücup uses a water-and-steam process — no chemicals — that reduces the specific acids responsible for stomach irritation, bringing our coffee to a measured 5.74 pH. For reference, Dunkin' tests at 5.02 and Starbucks at 5.08. On a logarithmic scale, that difference is roughly 60% less acid per cup.
The caffeine content is unchanged. The performance benefit stays intact. What goes away is the acid load that causes esophageal irritation during and after training.
That's the version Triathlete Magazine pointed to. Same one we've been making since 2010.