There are some people who like hot coffee and other people who like cold coffee, but almost nobody likes lukewarm coffee. In fact, once it hits that middle of the range temperature, most people either get a fresh cup or warm up the cup that they have.
Perhaps this leaves you with the question: Why is it that lukewarm coffee tastes bad when we love the taste of hot or cold coffee? Fortunately, that question has been answered in a viral TikTok video by @softpourn.
When posting the video, he answered the question asked by @bottomlysmimosas: “Why is intentional cold coffee delicious, but warm coffee that has gone cold disgusting?” As you can imagine, the responses were coming in from everywhere.
As a professional coffee roaster, Dan McLaughlin goes on to talk about the chemical process associated with hot coffee and what happens as the coffee temperature begins to go down.
McLaughlin says: “It’s a chemical reaction. Coffee has chemicals in it called lactones, and as hot coffee cools down, a chemical reaction happens where those lactones turn into carboxylic and chlorogenic acid.”
If this feels like it’s a bit over your head, don’t feel too bad. Most of us feel that way but you really don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand what he is saying. Quite simply, as coffee cools, it is less acidic and therefore, less tasty.
That reaction happens even less in the cold brew coffee because it was never hot in the first place.
Although that may be true, there are some things to keep in mind and McLaughlin points about for us. When it comes to getting the most out of your coffee drinking, you may want to consider drinking it at room temperature.
When coffee is brewed to taste highly acidic, that is different than a coffee that tastes acidic because of a chemical reaction. He says:
“A good, high-quality coffee with a nice bright acidity will actually start to taste sweeter and really good as it cools down. Whereas a coffee that’s acidic and not very good and lower quality, will taste worse.”
As an example, food tends to taste worse when it’s hot but as a cools down, we perceive it as tasting differently. Sometimes, when something is too hot, our taste buds can’t detect any subtleties in the taste.
Believe it or not, this leads us to the conclusion that if your lukewarm cup of coffee tastes horrible, it means that it wasn’t of the highest quality to start with.
He summed things up, saying: “I used some very definite language here but it’s not reflective of people’s subjective tastes. You can definitely enjoy acidic coffee.”
@softpourn #stitch with @bottomlysmimosas hope this makes sense
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