Some Like It Hot, Some Not
Some coffee drinkers like their coffee piping hot. So hot merely looking at the cup will scald their eyes. Others can drink coffee at room temperature. Still others prefer coffee cold, even in the winter.
No judgment here! But it is important to understand how temperature affects coffee flavor. Starting with the brew processes, the water temperature, along with the grind size, the amount of coffee and the extraction time, all determine coffee extraction. The hotter the water the faster the water will extract coffee flavors from the ground coffee. This means an over-extracted (and bitter) coffee, unless there are adjustments to the other variables, like shortening the amount of time the coffee brews or the amount of coffee grounds. That’s complicated and, well, nobody does that. So most coffee afficionados will give you ideal ranges: 210F water temperature, course grind, and 4 minutes for a French press, for example. Keeping it simple, pay attention to water temperature when brewing your coffee. If it tastes too bitter, you might be brewing too hot.
Now the less obvious point. Studies have shown that temperature affects how we taste food and drink. Any college freshman will tell you hot pizza tastes different than cold pizza, and any six-year old will slurp melted ice cream because it tastes sweeter than frozen ice cream. Um, somebody paid for this research?
It’s no different with coffee, thought this is debated among coffee geeks. We think people who like to drink their coffee scalding hot (close to boiling, something like 180-190F) might enjoy more the high temperature itself and warm mug in their hand than the coffee flavor because it’s difficult to pick up on subtle flavor notes at that temperature. The heat is just too overpowering. As the temperature cools, the coffee flavor itself really comes out and individual notes become prominent, particularly sweetness and fruits. Not just that, but subtleties move around as temperature changes—you might get more fruit flavors at cooler temperatures and more sweet flavors at slightly higher temperatures.
What temperature range should you aim for? That’s entirely subjective. Professional associations like the SCA say we should aim for something like 170F. Eh. We tend to start enjoying it from 170 all the way down to room temperature. Each sip tastes delicious, but in different ways!
Final tip—don’t reheat your coffee. But that’s a post for another time.