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QUESTION:
Please tell me what is the proper temperature to serve coffee?
ANSWER:
You should serve hot coffee at a temperature between 155ºF and 175ºF (70ºC to 80ºC). Most people prefer coffee to be in the upper range, closer to 175ºF. Many restaurants serve in the mid-to lower range and some at-home coffee brewers keep the coffee at temperatures lower than this, which is not desirable.
Keep in mind that coffee does and should cool between brewing and serving. For brewing, the water needs to be about 200 °F (93 °C) which is just under boiling. At this temperature, the brew will properly extract flavor from the ground coffee. If it is cooler, the beans will not release their flavor. If the watter is too hot, the coffee becomes more bitter as because the water will extract some undesirable elements from the grind. Serving coffee at 200 °F is too hot to drink. It will scald your tongue and throat and can even cause third degree burns if spilled on a person.You may remember the "scalding hot coffee" lawsuit against MacDonalds a few years back. A customer was scalded by MacDonalds coffee she accidentally spilled on herself. At that time, MacDonalds served coffee at between 180 to 200 degrees for optimal taste. The customer was originally awarded $2.7 million dollars (two days of McDonalds' coffee sales at that time) but that original award was reduced later and the parties settled. Now McDonalds coffee is reported to be served at about 158 °F.
It is important that the brewed coffee not be stored at those higher temperatures of above 175 °F because the oils in the coffee will continue to evaporate, losing some of the finer flavor.
A burn hazard exists for any liquid above 140 °F, so please be careful.
You will like the flavor of your coffee 175º but if you are concerned about safety you may want to reduce that a bit.
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